A  DEFENCE  of  the  MOTHER 
CONVERSION  AND  CREED 

Abraham  Lincoln 


Fiat  Justitia 


3^ 


^  ^ 


A  DEFENCE  OF  LINCOLN'S 

MOTHER,  CONVERSION 

AND  CREED 

Being  an  open  letter  to  the  author  of 

"The  Soul  ^Abraham  Lincoln" 

By 
JAMES  M.  MARTIN 


Second  Edition 

Published  at  Minneapolis 

1921 


/1Xl 


hr^ 


Nancy  Hanks 


THE  days  of  the  distaff,  the  skillet,  the  Dutch  oven, 
the  open  fireplace  with  its  iron  crane,  are  no 
longer,  but  homemaking  is  still  the  finest  of  the  fine 
arts.  Nancy  Hanks  was  touched  with  the  divine  atti- 
tudes of  the  fireside.  Loved  and  honored  for  her  wit, 
geniality  and  intelligence,  she  justified  an  ancestry 
reaching  beyond  the  seas,  represented  by  the  notable 
names  of  Hanks,  Shipley,  Boone,  Evans  and  Morris. 
To  her  was  entrusted  the  task  of  training  a  giant,  in 
whose  childhood  memories  she  was  hallowed.  Of  her 
he  said,  **My  earliest  recollection  of  my  mother  is  sit- 
ting at  her  feet  with  my  sister,  drinking  in  the  tales 
and  legends  that  were  related  to  us."  To  him  on  her 
deathbed  she  said,  "I  am  going  away  from  you,  Abra- 
ham, and  I  shall  not  return.  I  know  that  you  will  be  a 
good  boy;  that  you  will  be  kind  to  Sarah  and  to  your 
father.  I  want  you  to  live  as  I  have  taught  you,  and 
to  love  your  Heavenly  Father."  ''All  that  I  am  or  hope 
to  be  I  owe  to  my  angel  mother."    (Abraham  Lincoln,) 

(From  the  inscription  on  inside  wall  of  the 
granite  building  erected  in  Hardin  County, 
Kentucky,  on  the  site  of,  and  housing,  the  log 
cabin  in  which  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born.) 


Open  Letter 


Minneapolis,  Minnesota,  January  28,   1921. 
Rev.  William  E.  Barton, 
Oak  Park,  Illinois. 

Dear  Sir:  I  have  read  with  interest  your  book 
entitled,  "The  Soul  of  Abraham  Lincoln."  The  sub- 
ject has  been  one  of  absorbing  interest  to  me  from  my 
boyhood. 

Reared  in  a  Christian  home,  where  the  speeches, 
debates,  every  message,  proclamation,  and  item  of  per- 
sonal news  of  our  great  President  was  anxiously 
awaited  and  carefully  read  and  studied  by  an  ardent 
Whig-Republican  with  real  and  genuine  interest,  no 
subsequent  environment  has  caused  me  to  forget  those 
early  lessons, — my  reverence  of  the  soul  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  has  grown  with  my  age,  and  my  love  of  him 
and  of  every  true  word  written  about  him  increases  as 
the  years  go  by. 

(I  must  crave  pardon  for  this  personal  tone  which 
seems  necessary  to  set  forth  my  interest  in  the  sub- 
ject.) 

I  learned  in  those  years,  when  scarcely  ten  years  of 
age,  at  my  father's  fireside,  that  a  mighty  leader,  an 
incorruptible  statesman,  had  arisen  in  the  land.  The 
precept  of  that  home  was  that  Lincoln  had  come  to  his 
place  in  answer  to  the  prayers  of  God's  people,  white 
and  black,  for  generations  past,  and  every  utterance  of 
his,  that  revealed  his  own  soul,  showed  his  Christian 
belief,  or  disclosed  his  faith  in  an  over-ruling  Provi- 
dence or  dependence  upon  the  God  of  our  nation  as 
his  personal  God,  was  eagerly  noted,  and  thanks  given 
therefor  at  the  family  altar. 

Seven 


The  keen  sadness  of  that  serious  day  in  April,  1865, 
has  never  faded  from  my  memory ;  I  recall  my  father's 
tears  as  I,  then  not  quite  fourteen,  draped  my  horse  in 
black  and  rode  in  the  solemn  funeral  procession  to 
listen  to  a  funeral  oration  by  the  best  talent  that  the 
neighborhood  afforded.  It  was  a  sad,  sad  day  to 
those  who  loved  Abraham  Lincoln  as  our  family  truly 
loved  him.  So  I  am  interested  in  the  subject  you 
selected  for  the  title  of  your  work. 

That  the  soul  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  true,  honest, 
sincere,  loving,  devout,  free  from  selfishness,  prejudice 
and  bias,  we  then  believed,  and  my  father,  I  know,  had, 
from  his  diligent  study  of  his  every  utterance  available, 
and  from  testimony  of  contemporary  witnesses — now 
dust — determined  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  true, 
devout,  praying  Christian,  that  he  loved  the  Lord  his 
God  with  all  his  heart,  soul,  mind  and  strength,  and  his 
neighbor  as  himself,  and  would,  I  know,  have  sub- 
scribed to  the  estimate  of  Reverend  Chiniquy,  Lincoln's 
client  and  fast  friend,  whom  you  have  quoted  appro- 
priately in  connection  with  a  remarkable  interview  at 
the  White  House,  when  he  said: 

"I  found  in  him  the  most  perfect  type  of  Chris- 
tianity I  ever  met.  Professedly,  he  was  neither  a 
strict  Presbyterian,  nor  a  Baptist,  nor  a  Methodist ; 
but  he  was  the  embodiment  of  all  which  is  more 
perfect  and  Christian  in  them.  His  religion  was 
the  very  essence  of  what  God  wants  in  man." 

What  more  could  be  said  except  to  add  the  testi- 
mony of  another  who  knew  him,  and  deliberately 
stated  in  an  oration : 

"I  present  Mr.  Lincoln  as  the  best  specimen  of 
Christian  man  I  have  ever  encountered  in  public 
life." 

No  miscroscope  can  add  to  either  of  these. 

Eight 


In  your  book  you  have,  with  the  tradition  of  sup- 
pressed editions,  but  for  the  purpose  of  argument  of 
course,  reprinted  the  objectionable  paragraphs  in  the 
works  of  Herndon  and  Lamon,  the  two  famihar 
friends,  wherein  they  each  strove,  without  success,  to 
make  his  Master  appear  such  a  one  as  he  himself  was, 
an  infidel — and  by  your  definition  of  "infidel,"  and  the 
many  interesting  illustrations  gleaned  from  your  per- 
sonal experiences  in  the  environment  of  the  wilderness 
(though  probably  more  than  fifty  years  after  Lincoln 
had  come  out  of  it),  you  have,  I  am  sure,  explained 
away  the  mistaken  charge  of  infidelity,  and  shown  that 
neither  of  the  friends  really  meant  what  he  said.  The 
reprinting  of  the  charges  will,  of  course,  not  hurt 
Lincoln  any  more  than  the  many  campaign  slanders 
really  hurt ;  though  they  pained  him,  they  did  no  injury 
to  the  pure  soul  of  their  object. 

When  I  took  up  your  volume,  I  noticed  with  joy 
your  statement  that  "This  book  attempts  to  be  a  digest 
of  all  the  available  evidence  concerning  the  religious 
faith  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  It  undertakes  also  to  weigh 
the  evidence  and  to  pass  judgment,  the  author's  own 
judgment,  concerning  it.  If  the  reader's  judgment 
agrees  with  the  author's,  the  author  will  be  glad;  but 
if  not,  at  least  the  facts  are  here  set  forth  in  their  full 
essential  content."  (The  italics  are,  of  course,  my 
own.) 

This  promise,  I  soon  found  with  regret,  was  very 
far  from  being  kept.  Many  facts  and  much  evidence, 
first  hand  and  proven  by  indisputable  testimony,  is 
clearly  omitted.  This  appears  most  noticeably  in 
regard  to  the  character,  beliefs  and  influence  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  mother. 

When  a  lawyer  has  promised  the  production  of  cer- 


Nine 


tain  testimony,  and  then  omits  to  introduce  it,  the 
conjecture  is  that  his  case  has  not  developed  just  as 
he  had  planned  it.  But  lawyers  are  usually  frankly 
partisan. 

In  my  humble  opinion,  you  have  done  injustice  to 
your  subject  by  the  manner  of  your  treatment  of  the 
mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  Religious  Influence  of 
Lincoln's  Mother. 

You  give  a  chapter  of  thirty-two  pages  to  "The 
environment  of  Lincoln's  boyhood,"  and  scarcely  a 
line,  surely  not  a  full  paragraph  without  detraction,  to 
the  character,  teaching  or  influence  of  his  mother. 

In  effect,  you  say  you  have  learned  from  reading 
Buckle's  History  of  Civilization,  that  the  development 
of  an  individual  or  a  nation  is  profoundly  influenced  by 
environment.  I  have  not  read  Buckle.  Does  he  show 
a  single  authentic  case  where  environment  has  swept 
away  the  firmly  fixed  spiritual  anchor  of  an  individual  ? 
Does  your  cited  authority  reverse  the  judgment  of 
Solomon  rendered  and  formulated  in  an  injunction 
three  thousand  years  ago?* 

*Note — Froude,  in  his  Essay  on  The  Science  of  History, 
pays  Mr.  Buckle  the  highest  compliments  for  persuasive  elo- 
quence, diligence  and  persistency,  but  fails  to  endorse  his 
theories  as  to  the  irresistible  influence  of  environment  upon 
mankind,  or  upon  nations. 

Mr.  Buckle  maintained  that  "The  Northern  nations  are 
hardy  and  industrious  because  they  must  till  the  earth  if  they 
would  eat  the  fruits  of  it,  and  because  the  temperature  is 
too  low  to  make  an  idle  life  enjoyable.  In  the  South  the 
soil  is  more  productive,  while  less  food  is  wanted,  and  fewer 
clothes,  and  in  the  exquisite  air  exertion  is  not  needed  to 
make  the  sense  of  existence  delightful.  Therefore,  in  the 
South  we  find  men  lazy  and  indolent." 

Mr.  Froude  mildly  remarks  that  'There  are  difficulties  in 
Ten 


Environment,  of  course,  should  be  studied.  Envi- 
ronment may  warp  or  develop,  may  profoundly  influ- 
ence an  individual  life;  but  if  the  anchor  is  shown  to 
have  been  firmly  fixed,  as  in  Lincoln's  case,  I  venture 
to  say  no  environment,  such  as  his  is  known  to  have 
been,  has  ever  been  shown  to  sweep  that  anchor  away 
from  the  rock  of  truth. 

There  may  be  drifting  and  tossing,  slacking  and 
straining  of  the  cable,  darkness  and  storms  may  for 
years  hide  the  rock,  but  the  anchor  holds,  and  the  bark 
will  not  depart.  So  said  the  wise  man,  and  so  the 
religious  life  of  Lincoln  illustrated. 

Have  you  not  laid  unprofitable  stress  upon  the 
''character  of  the  preaching  which  Abraham  Lincoln 
heard  in  his  boyhood"  and  forgotten  his  mother's 
Bible,  and  his  mother's  prayers? 

You,  no  doubt,  say  truly  that  the  prevailing  and 
almost  the  sole  type  of  preaching  in  that  part  of 
Indiana  during  Lincoln's  boyhood  "was  a  very  unpro- 
gressive  type"  and  ''against  it  the  boy,  Abe  Lincoln, 
rebelled."  Why?  Was  it  not  the  influence  of  his 
mother's  teaching? 

In  attempting  to  set  forth  "The  True  Story  of 
Lincoln's  Spiritual  Life  and  Convictions,"  as  the  adver- 
tisement   of    your    book    expresses    it,    can    Lincoln's 

these  views,  the  home  of  the  languid  Italian  was  the  home 
also  of  the  sternest  race  of  whom  the  story  of  mankind 
retains  a  record.  And,  again  when  we  are  told  that  the 
Spaniards  are  superstitious  because  Spain  is  a  country  of 
earthquakes,  we  remember  Japan,  the  spot  in  all  the  World 
where  earthquakes  are  most  frequent,  and  where  at  the 
same  time  there  is  the  most  serene  disbelief  in  any  super- 
natural agency  whatsoever. 

"Moreover,  if  men  grow  into  what  they  are  by  natural 
laws,  they  can  not  help  being  what  they  are,  and  if  they 
can  not  help  being  what  they  are,  a  good  deal  will  have  to 
be  altered  in  our  general  view  of  human  obligations  and 
responsibilities." 

Eleven 


mother,  her  faith,  her  rehgion,  her  teachings,  be 
ignored  ?  Can  one  properly  learn  the  secret  of  a  tree's 
development  and  ignore  its  root? 

In  my  humble  opinion,  it  was  very  much  more 
important  to  study  the  mother's  religion,  who  held 
constant  communion  with  the  boy  until  he  was  nearly 
ten  years  of  age,  than  to  study  the  environments  of 
either  that  mother  or  that  boy  during  that  period,  or  to 
inquire  closely  into  the  particular  kind  of  a  church  that 
she  joined  with  her  husband,  in  a  wilderness  where 
churches  were  scarce,  or  the  kind  of  preaching  that  the 
boy  heard  in  those  days  or  even  the  preaching  that  he 
heard,  or  failed  to  hear,  in  after  years,  but  of  course 
this  is  only  my  opinion. 

When  I  say  religion,  I  mean,  not  the  particular 
creed  or  doctrine  of  any  church  that  she  may  have 
joined,  but  what  was  her  girlhood  religion,  her  wo- 
man's faith,  her  belief  in  God  and  about  God,  and  her 
love  of  her  boy. 

Lincoln  himself  has  not  left  the  question  of  his 
mother's  influence  in  doubt.  Probably  few  prominent 
men  of  fifty-six  have  left  such  indisputable  evidence 
as  to  the  character  and  influence  of  his  mother,  and 
where  and  by  zcJiorn  his  spiritual  anchor  was  fixed. 

I  do  not  find  that  you  have  quoted  any  of  these 
items  of  evidence  in  your  book  of  upwards  of  400 
pages,  and  this  is  one  of  the  omissions  that  I  com- 
plain of. 

J.  G.  Holland,  as  you  know,  in  1865,  after  the 
assassination,  wrote  a  life  of  Lincoln,  and  in  the  prep- 
aration thereof  went  into  the  neighborhoods  of  all 
three  of  the  states  where  Lincoln  had  lived,  and  where 
there  were  at  that  time  many  still  living  who  knew 
personally    Nancy    Hanks    Lincoln,    the    President's 

Twelve 


mother,  and  personally  gathered   the  evidence  as  to 
both  mother  and  son. 

That  Holland  was  not  lacking  in  ''training  in  or 
inclination  toward  historical  investigation"  (as  you 
say  Bishop  Fowler  was)  must  be  admitted,  and  after 
such  investigation  he  deliberately  placed  on  record  the 
facts  that  he  found,  and  the  conclusions  that  he  came 
to,  as  follows : 

''Mrs.  Lincoln,  the  mother,  was  evidently  a  wo- 
man out  of  place  among  those  primitive  surround- 
ings. She  was  five  feet,  five  inches  high,  a  slender, 
pale,  sad  and  sensitive  woman,  with  much  in  her 
nature  that  was  truly  heroic,  and  much  that  shrank 
from  the  rude  life  around  her.  A  great  man  never 
drew  his  infant  life  from  a  purer  or  more  womanly 
bosom  than  her  own ;  and  Mr.  Lincoln  always 
looked  back  to  her  with  an  unspeakable  affection. 
Long  after  her  sensitive  heart  and  weary  hands  had 
crumbled  into  dust,  and  had  climbed  to  life  again 
in  forest  flowers,  he  said  to  a  friend,  with  tears  in 
his  eyes :  'All  that  I  am,  or  hope  to  be,  I  owe  to 
my  angel  mother — blessings  on  her  memory' ."^ 

"His  character  was  planted  in  this  Christian 
mother's  life.  Its  roots  were  fed  by  this  Christian 
mother's  love ;  and  those  that  have  wondered  at 
the  truthfulness  and  earnestness  of  his  mature 
character  have  only  to  remember  that  the  tree  zms 
true  to  the  soil  from  ivhich  it  sprang." 

Even  Herndon,  who  lifted  up  his  heel  against  the 
son — mistakenly,  no  doubt — left  on  record  a  loving 
tribute  to  that  mother,  and  he  quotes  from  a  friend, 
present  at  her  deathbed,  on  October  5,  1818: 

"The  mother  knew  she  was  going  to  die,  and 
called  her  children  (Abe  and  Sarah)  to  her  bedside. 
She  was  very  weak,  and  the  children  leaned  over 
while  she  gave  her  last  message.  Placing  her  feeble 
hand  on  little  Abe's  head,  she  told  him  to  be  kind 

*Sce  Appendix  IT. 

Thirteen 


and  good  to  his  father  and  sister ;  to  both  she  said 
*Be  good  to  one  another,'  expressing  a  hope  that 
they  might  Hve  as  they  had  been  taught  by  her,  to 
love  their  kindred  and  worship  God:' 

Holland,  again  quoting  from  the  White  House,  in 
Lincoln's  dark  days,  when  he  had  buried  his  little 
Willie,  says  that  after  the  funeral,  when  the  Christian 
nurse  expressed  sympathy  for  him,  Lincoln  replied : 

"I  wish  I  had  that  childlike  faith  you  speak  of, 
and  I  trust  He  will  give  it  to  me."  And  then  he 
spoke  of  his  mother,  whom  so  many  years  before  he 
had  committed  to  the  dust  among  the  wilds  of 
Indiana.  In  this  hour  of  his  great  trial,  the  mem- 
ory of  her  who  had  held  him  upon  her  bosom,  and 
soothed  his  childish  griefs,  came  back  to  him  with 
tenderest  recollections.  7  remember  her  prayers' 
said  he,  'and  they  have  ahvays  followed  me.  They 
have  clung  to  me  all  my  life'." 

Isaac  N.  Arnold,  Esq.,  was  an  intelligent,  credible 
witness,  an  intimate  friend,  an  attorney,  and  member 
of  Congress,  and  had  exceptional  opportunities  to 
know  whereof  he  testified,  and  he  says : 

"No  more  reverent  Christian  than  he  ever  sat 
in  the  executive  chair,  not  excepting  Washington. 
From  the  time  he  left  Springfield  to  his 
death  he  not  only  himself  continually  prayed  for 
divine  assistance,  but  continually  asked  the  prayers 
of  his  friends  for  himself  and  his  country. 
Doubtless,  like  others,  he  passed  through  periods 
of  doubt  and  perplexity,  but  his  faith  in  a  Divine 
Providence  began  at  his  mother's  knee,  and  ran 
through  all  the  changes  of  his  life." 

There  is  at  least  one  more  direct  witness  from 
whom  you  have  quoted  a  remarkable  incident* — Father 
Chiniquy — "The  Apostle  of  Temperance  of  Canada." 
After  describing  his  own  deliverance  from  a  criminal 

*See  Appendix  HI. 
Fourteen 


charge,  based  on  perjured  testimony  before  the  court 
at  Urbana,  Illinois,  in  May,  1856,  in  which,  after  the 
adjournment  of  court  at  ten  o'clock  at  night,  the  first 
day  of  the  trial,  his  attorney,  Lincoln,  informed  him 
that  unless  he  could  establish  an  alibi,  he  would  be 
convicted  in  the  morning,  and  added :  *'The  only  way 
to  be  sure  of  a  favorable  verdict  tomorrow  is  that 
Almighty  God  would  take  our  part,  and  show  your 
innocence.  Go  to  Him  and  pray,  for  He  alone  can  save 
you,"  and  when,  at  three  o'clock,  an  unknown  witness 
came  and  he  was  saved,  that  in  Lincoln's  talk  with  him 
in  the  morning,  he  said : 

"The  way  you  have  been  saved  from  their  hand, 
the  appearance  of  that  young  and  intelligent  Miss 
MofTat,  who  was  really  sent  by  God  in  the  very 
hour  of  need,  when,  I  confess  it  again,  I  thought 
everything  was  nearly  lost,  is  one  of  the  most  extra- 
ordinary occurrences  I  ever  saw.  It  makes  me 
remember  what  I  have  too  often  forgotten,  and 
what  my  mother  often  told  me  zvhen  young — that 
our  God  is  a  prayer-hearing  God.  This  good 
thought  sozvn  into  my  young  heart  by  that  dear 
mother's  hand,  zvas  just  in  my  mind  when  I  told 
you,  'Go  and  pray,  God  alone  can  save  you.'  But 
I  confess  to  you  that  I  had  not  faith  enough  to 
believe  that  your  prayer  would  be  so  quickly  and  so 
marvelously  answered  by  the  sudden  appearance  of 
that  interesting  young  lady  last  night." 

I  repeat,  I  know  of  no  man  of  prominence,  who 
has  not  written  his  own  autobiography,  who  has  left 
more  unimpeachable  evidence  as  to  where  his  spiritual 
anchor  was  fixed,  and  ivho  it  zvas  that  placed  it. 
Neither  his  mother's  character,  nor  her  religious  faith 
can  be  ignored  in  any  proper  study  of  the  spiritual  life 
of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

It  is  true  that  you  have  not  omitted  entire  reference 

.  Fifteen 


to  the  mother.  On  page  S6,  when  describing  the 
opportunities  of  the  bleak  environment,  you  say, 
"Herndon  tells  us  of  the  fondness  of  the  Hanks  girls 
for  camp-meetings,  and  describes  one  in  which  Nancy 
appears  to  have  participated,  a  little  time  before  her 
marriage.  We  have  no  reason  to  believe  that  was  her 
last  camp-meeting." 

The  facts  that  Herndon  has  left  on  record,  are : 

"The  Hanks  girls  were  great  at  camp-meetings." 
"The  Hanks  girls  were  the  finest  singers  and 
shouters  in  our  county." 

But  even  he  seemed  to  hesitate  to  assert  that  it  was 
Nancy  Hanks  that  participated  in  the  scene,  at  a  certain 
Kentucky  camp-meeting,  fantastically  described  by  his 
informant,  an  outsider,  who,  with  his  girl,  stood  upon 
a  bench  in  order  to  look  over  into  the  altar,  and  to 
laugh  at  the  shouting. 

Notwithstanding  this  reference  to  camp-meetings, 
you  had  deliberately  asserted,  at  the  top  of  page  48: 
"It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  Lincoln  family  ap- 
pears, never  at  any  time  in  its  history,  to  have  been 
strongly  under  the  influence  of  INIethodism." 

Was  it  the  Presbyterians  or  the  hard  shell  Baptists 
that  conducted  camp-meetings  in  Kentucky  during  the 
first  decade  of  1800?  I  am  somewhat  in  the  dark, 
never  having  taught  school  in  that  state,  even  in  the 
80's,  and  not  being  specially  educated  in  historical 
investigations. 

To  emphasize  the  fact  that  you  make  the  statement 
deliberately,  you  add  a  note:  *T  do  not  forget  that 
Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks  were  married  by 
Reverend  Jesse  Head,  who  was  a  Methodist  preacher, 
but  I  do  not  find  evidence  that  Mr.  Head  asserted  any 
marked  influence  over  them.     Mr.  Head  was  not  only 


Sixteen 


a  minister,  but  a  Justice  of  the  Peace,  and  anti-slavery 
man,  and  a  person  of  strong  and  righteous  character. 
I  am  not  sure  whether  the  fact  that  he  performed  the 
marriage  is  not  due  in  some  measure  to  the  fact  that 
he  was  about  the  court  house,  and  a  convenient  minister 
to  find." 

This  insinuation  of  a  hasty  marriage  is  unworthy, 
and  of  course  unfounded  and  false.  The  record  shows 
that  the  marriage  bond  was  formally  executed  and  filed 
two  days  before  the  wedding,  and  that  the  marriage 
was  celebrated  at  the  home  of  Richard  Berry,  and  the 
infare  at  the  home  of  her  guardian,  to  both  of  which 
all  the  neighbors  came,  etc. 

Is  there  any  evidence  that  the  active  circuit  rider. 
Rev.  Jesse  Head,  "Deacon  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church"  (as  he  signed  himself),  was  in  the  habit  of 
loafing  around  the  court  house  ?  Where  was  this  court 
house  located? 

At  another  place  in  your  work,  you  admit  that: 

*T  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  Hanks  family 
had  Methodist  antecedents.  Thomas  and  Nancy 
Lincoln  w^ere  married  by  a  Methodist  preacher. 
Rev.  Jesse  Head.  He  is  known  to  have  been  a  foe 
of  slavery,  and  there  is  some  reason  to  think  that 
the  Lincoln  family  derived  some  part  of  its  love  of 
freedom  from  him." 

There  is  no  question  of  the  correctness  of  these 
tardily  admitted  facts,  and  I  am  inclined  to  think  that 
investigation  would  show  that  the  hymns  that  Nancy 
Hanks  sung  were  those  of  Charles  Wesley,  and  that 
at  the  camp-meetings  there  were  many  sermons 
preached  on  Free  Grace,  and  "Whosoever  will,"  in 
short,  that  she  was  an  ardent,  devout,  active  Methodist. 

Whether  she  was  a  Methodist  or  not  is,  in  my  view, 
unimportant.    She  was,  as  the  histories  show,  a  loving, 

Seventeen 


sincere,  earnest,  praying  mother,  who  trained  her  boy 
in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  any  attempt  to  take  from 
her  her  rightful  crown  of  glory,  and  give  it  to  any 
preacher,  or  group  of  preachers,  or  cast  it  upon  envi- 
ronment, will  and  should  fail.  Justice  is  due  to  her 
memory. 

You  have  not  written  into  any  line  the  name  of  the 
denomination  to  which  you  belong,  or  the  specific  creed 
or  doctrine  to  which  you  adhere.  As  a  historian,  of 
course,  your  personal  views  are  entirely  immaterial. 
A  historian  is  expected  to  give  all  the  facts  without 
permitting  his  own  views  to  influence  the  record  by 
omissions  or  otherwise.  When  a  man  undertakes, 
however,  to  record  his  own  personal  judgment,  it  is 
important  to  know  what  his  personal  beliefs  are,  as 
even  unconsciously  his  mind  may  be  warped  thereby. 

I  have  no  reason  for  leaving  anything  to  be  read 
between  the  lines,  and  frankly  say  that  I  am  a  Metho- 
dist— a  layman — and  do  not  believe  that  my  mind  has 
been  greatly  warped  by  reading  theology.  It  is  not, 
however,  my  aim,  and  if  you  can  comprehend  it,  it  is 
not  my  wish  or  desire  to  prove  that  Lincoln  was  a 
Methodist. 

I  think  Father  Chiniquy  came  nearer  the  truth 
when  he  said  that  Lincoln  was  the  embodiment  of  all 
which  is  more  perfect  and  Christian  in  more  than  one 
denomination. 

Personally,  I  believe  that  Lincoln's  belief  embodied 
more  that  was  distinctively  Methodist  than  Calvinist, 
and  I  do  resent  the  slight  you  have  attempted  to  place 
upon  his  mother. 


Eighteen 


Rev.  Col.  J.  F.  Jaquess — Conversion 

I  respectfully  submit  that  in  your  book  you  did 
injustice  to  my  friend  and  former  pastor,  Rev.  Edward 
L.  Watson,  D.  D.,  now  of  Baltimore,  in  that  you 
charge  him  with  having  reported  hearsay  details  as 
direct  testimony,  and  have  done  wrong  to  the  memory 
of  Rev.  Col.  Jaquess  in  your  assertion  of  the  question- 
ableness  of  the  story  as  told  by  him,  and  wrong  to  the 
memory  of  Mr,  Lincoln,  in  repeatedly  asserting  that 
his  life,  after  1847  (or  even  1839),  was  not  consistent 
with  the  truth  of  the  events  recited  by  Colonel  Jaquess. 

You  have  given  over  two  pages  to  a  subhead,  "Was 
Abraham  Lincoln  a  Methodist?" 

Who  did  you  ever  know  to  claim  that  Lincoln  was 
a  IMethodist? 

In  your  book  you  say : 

(1)  "This  question  would  seem  to  require  no 
answer,  yet  it  is  one  that  should  receive  an  answer, 
for  claims  have  been  made,  and  are  still  current, 
which  imply  that  Lincoln  was  actually  converted  in 
the  Methodist  church,  whose  doctrine  he  accepted 
because  Calvinism  was  repugnant  to  him ;  and  that 
while  he  continued  to  attend  the  Presbyterian 
church,  he  was  essentially  a  Methodist." 

(2)  "At  a  reunion  of  the  Seventy-third  Illinois 
Volunteers  held  in  Springfield  on  September  28 
and  29,  1897,  the  colonel  of  that  regiment,  Rev. 
James  F.  Jaquess,  D.  D.,  related  an  incident  in 
which  he  stated  that  while  he  was  serving  a  Metho- 
dist church  in  Springfield  in  i8^g,  Mr.  Lincoln 
attended  a  series  of  revival  services  held  in  that 
church,  and  was  converted." 

(3)  "Twelve  years  later,  in  1909,  in  connection 
with  the  Centenary  Celebration  of  the  birth  of 
Lincoln,  the  story  was  reprinted,  zvith  certain  added 
details  obtained  from  the  brother  of  Colonel 
Jaquess. 

Nineteen 


The  death  of  Colonel  Jaquess  arid  the  additions 
made  by  his  brother  give  this  incident  its  permanent 
form  in  the  Christian  Advocate  article  of  November 
11,  1909."     (See  appendix.) 

(4)  "That  the  story  as  told  by  Colonel  Jaquess 
must  have  some  element  of  truth  I  think  beyond 
question ;  that  it  occurred  exactly  as  he  related  it, 
I  greatly  doubt.  The  years  between  1839  and  1897 
numbered  fifty-eight,  and  that  is  more  than  ample 
time  for  a  man's  memory  to  magnify  and  color 
incidents  almost  beyond  recognition." 

"The  story  as  it  is  thus  told  lacks  confirmatory 
evidence.  //  Lincoln  was  converted  in  a  Methodist 
church  in  1839  and  remained  converted,  a  consider- 
able number  of  events  which  occurred  in  subsequent 
years  might  reasonably  have  been  expected  to  have 
been  otherwise  than  they  really  were.  Each  reader 
must  judge  for  himself  in  the  light  of  all  that  we 
know  of  Abraham  Lincoln  how  much  or  how  little 
of  this  story  is  to  be  accepted  as  literal  fact.  The 
present  writer  cannot  say  that  he  is  convinced  by 
the  story." 

(In  Note) — "It  is  a  story  which  it  is  impossible 
to  fit  into  the  life  of  Lincoln.  In  Latest  Light  on 
Lincoln,  Page  396,  Chapman  says,  'There  is  every 
reason  for  giving  this  remarkable  story  unquestion- 
ing credence.'  On  the  contrary,  there  is  every 
good  reason  for  questioning  it  at  every  essential 
point,  and  the  questions  do  not  evoke  satisfactory 


answers." 


After  thus  attempting  to  discount  the  story,  and 
discredit  both  Dr.  Watson  and  Colonel  Jaquess,  you 
published  in  full  Dr.  Watson's  article  of  November  11, 
1909,  in  the  Appendix  to  your  volume. 

A  careful  reading  of  the  article,  even  if  not  sympa- 
thetic, will  show  the  many  errors  in  your  attempted 
repudiation  of  its  truth.  Dates  are  sometimes  impor- 
tant, and  every  lawyer  knows  that  testimony  from 
memory  as  to  dates  is  very  unreliable,  and  usually 

Twenty 


practically  worthless.  It  behooves  a  historian,  there- 
fore, to  check  up  the  dates,  unless  they  are  based 
specifically  upon  record. 

The  date  that  Rev.  Jaquess  preached  the  sermon 
upon  "Ye  must  be  born  again" — which  Mr.  Lincoln 
listened  to,  and  afterwards  went  to  the  parsonage  where 
Mr.  Jaquess  and  his  wife  prayed  with  him,  was  in 
May,  1847,  not  in  1839.  I  give  simply  the  proper 
date,  and  will  hereafter  give  the  evidence  that  sustains 
it. 

Mr.  Jaquess'  own  story,  as  told  by  himself  at  the 
Eleventh  Annual  Reunion  of  the  Survivors  of  the 
Seventy-third  Regiment,  held  September  28  and  29, 
1897,  and  which  Dr.  Watson  correctly  copied  into  his 
article  of  November  11,  1909,  is  as  follows: 

"Very  soon  after  my  second  year's  work  as  a 
minister  in  the  Illinois  conference,  I  was  sent  to 
Springfield.  ...  It  was  one  Sunday  morning, 
a  beautiful  morning  in  May  .  .  .  the  church 
happened  to  be  filled  that  morning.  It  was  a  good 
sized  church,  but  on  that  day  all  the  seats  were 
filled.  I  had  chosen  for  my  text  the  words,  *Ye 
must  be  born  again,'  and  during  the  course  of  my 
sermon  I  laid  particular  stress  on  the  word  'must.' 
]\Ir.  Lincoln  came  in  the  church  after  the  services 
had  commenced,  and  there  being  no  vacant  seats, 
chairs  w^ere  put  in  the  altar  in  front  of  the  pulpit 
and  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Governor  French  and  wife 
sat  in  the  altar  during  the  entire  services,  Mr. 
Lincoln  on  my  left  and  Governor  French  on  my 
right,  and  I  noticed  that  Mr.  Lincoln  appeared  to 
be  deeply  interested  in  the  sermon.  A  few  days 
after  that  Sunday  Mr.  Lincoln  called  on  me  and 
informed  me  that  he  had  been  greatly  impressed 
with  my  remarks  on  Sunday  and  that  he  had  come 
to  talk  to  me  further  on  the  matter.  I  invited  him 
in,  and  my  wife  and  I  talked  and  prayed  with  him 
for  hours.     Now,  I  have  seen  many  persons  con- 

Twenty-one 


verted ;  I  have  seen  hundreds  brought  to  Christ, 
and  if  ever  a  person  was  converted,  Abraham  Lin- 
cohi  was  converted  that  night  in  my  house.  His 
wife  was  a  Presbyterian,  but  from  remarks  he 
made  to  me  he  could  not  accept  Calvinism.  He 
never  joined  my  church,  but  I  will  always  believe 
that  since  that  night  Abraham  Lincoln  lived  and 
died  a  Christian  gentleman." 

Now,  what  is  there  in  this  story  that  is  improbable, 
false,  or  inconsistent  with  the  future  life,  habits  and 
actions  of  Mr.  Lincoln?  What  did  he  do  after  May, 
1847,  that  was  inconsistent  with  the  most  critical  con- 
struction of  Colonel  Jaquess'  statement? 

Dr.  Watson,  in  his  article  in  the  Christian  Advocate, 
quoted  this  statement,  word  for  word.  He  added 
nothing  to  it,  except  his  own  expression  of  pleasure 
that  he  was  able  to  prove  that  Methodism  had  a  hand 
in  the  making  of  the  greatest  American. 

If  you  had  read  with  care  the  first  part  of  Dr. 
Watson's  article,  you  would  have  seen  that  he  was 
giving  from  memory  the  narrative  told  him  personally 
by  Colonel  Jaquess  twelve  years  before.  There  is  not 
one  syllable  in  the  narrative  admitted  by  Dr.  Watson, 
to  be  ''added  details  obtained  from  the  brother  of 
Colonel  Jaquess,"  and  your  repeated  assertion  that  Dr. 
Watson  had  reported  "additions  made  by  his  brother" 
is  wrong,  and  a  wrong  on  your  part  to  Dr.  Watson. 

That  Dr.  Watson  had  carried  in  his  mind  for  twelve 
years  without  memoranda  the  narrative  as  clearly  as 
stated,  is  really  remarkable.  He  wrote  it  out  in  1909 
without  having  before  him,  very  evidently,  any  memo- 
randa of  the  incident, — not  even  the  garbled  accounts 
printed  in  the  ]\Iinneapolis  newspapers  in  May,  1897. 

It  appears  that  after  Colonel  Jaquess  had  told  the 
incident  to  Dr.  Watson,  in  May,  1897,  that  he  was 
invited  by  him  to  attend  the  Minneapolis  Ministers' 

Twenty-two 


Monday  Meeting,  which  he  did,  and  told  to  them  there 
the  same  story  that  he  related  in  September  of  the 
same  year,  before  the  soldiers'  reunion  in  Springfield. 

Dr.  Watson  having  apparently  partially  prepared 
his  article  of  1909,  discovered,  after  doing  so,  that 
the  record  was  in  the  minutes  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
reunion  of  the  Regiment  of  1897,  and  instead  of  re- 
writing his  own  memory  report,  he  says :  "The  narra- 
tive as  told  thus  far  is  as  my  memory  recalls  it.  Since 
writing  it,  the  same,  as  told  by  Colonel  Jaquess  has 
recently  been  discovered  by  me  in  the  minutes  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  Eleventh  Annual  Reunion  Survivors 
Seventy-third  Regiment,  Illinois  Infantry  Volunteers, 
page  30,  a  copy  of  which  is  before  me,"  and  he  then 
quotes  the  record,  both  of  which  are  before  me. 

As  to  the  dates  given  by  Dr.  Watson  from  memory, 
there  are  three,  only  one  of  them  is  important — 189^1 — 
the  date  that  he  came  to  ^linneapolis,  is  correct ; 
"1896,"  the  date  when  he  met  Colonel  Jaquess,  should 
be  1897;  and  1839  as  the  date  of  Colonel  Jaquess' 
sermon  that  Lincoln  listened  to,  should  be  1847;  but 
only  one  of  them  is  important — 1847. 

If  you  had  investigated  the  question,  as  a  historian, 
before  condemning  it,  you  would  have  noticed  this 
error  in  dates,  because  Colonel  Jaquess  was  not  a 
minister  of  the  gospel  in  1839.  You  will  note  that 
Colonel  Jaquess  says  that  the  date  that  he  came  to 
Springfield  was  "very  soon  after  my  second  year's 
work  as  a  minister."  Methodist  ministers  were  ap- 
pointed annually,  but  never  more  than  three  years  to 
the  same  place,  and  seldom  more  than  two. 

The  year  book  of  Depauw  University — 188^1 — gives 
Colonel  Jaquess  as  an  alumnus,  with  the  following : 
"Graduated    1845,   entered   Illinois   Conference;   1845 

Twenty-three 


appointed  to  Shawneetown  Circuit ;  1846  Petersburg ; 
1847-48  Springfield;  1849  President  Female  College, 
Jackson ;  1855  Paris  Station ;  1856  President  College, 
Quincy,  Illinois ;  .  .  .  Address :  London,  Eng- 
land." 

Hon.  Augustus  C.  French  was  Governor  of  Illinois 
from  December  9,  1846,  to  1852,  an  irregular  term, 
caused  by  the  Constitution  being  amended  during  his 
first  term. 

Lincoln  was  in  Springfield  in  May,  1847,  and  until 
November,  when  he  was  absent  for  two  years  in  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  in  Congress. 

This  record  does  not  contradict,  but  corroborates 
the  story  of  Colonel  Jaquess  that  in  May,  soon  after 
his  second  year  in  the  ministry,  he  had  the  opportunity 
of  preaching  a  sermon  to  which  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
Governor  French  and  his  wife  might  have  listened. 
Did  he?    Who  is  the  witness?    Was  he  credible? 

Let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  your  discounts : 

(1)  You  assert  that  it  is  implied  that  Lincoln  was 
actually  converted  in  the  Methodist  church,  whose 
doctrine  he  accepted,  and  that  while  he  continued  to 
attend  the  Presbyterian  church,  he  was  essentially  a 
Methodist. 

The  record  does  not  disclose  any  discussion  of  a 
distinctive  ''doctrine,"  accepted  or  otherwise.  It  was 
the  necessity  of  a  new  birth  that  interested  Lincoln. 
There  was  no  continuing  to  attend  the  Presbyterian 
church,  because  Lincoln  had  not  commenced  in  1847, 
much  less  in  1839,  according  to  your  own  record,  to 
attend  that  church  with  his  wife.  It  was  not  until 
after  February  1,  1850,  that  he  even  became  acquainted 
with  Dr.  James  Smith,  of  Sacred  Memory. 

Twenty-four 


(2)  You  are  wrong  in  asserting  that,  in  1897,  be- 
fore his  comrades  in  Springfield,  Rev.  James  F. 
Jaquess,  D.  D.,  related  an  incident  in  which  he  stated 
that  "while  he  was  serving  a  Methodist  church  in 
Springfield  in  i8^p,  Mr.  Lincoln  attended  his  service," 
etc.  Colonel  Jaquess  pointed  out  the  correct  date,  and 
a  historian  should  not  have  perpetuated  the  erroneous 
date,  given  expressly  from  memory  of  a  narrator,  not 
claiming  to  have  been  especially  ''trained  in  historical 
research." 

(3)  You  are  doubly  wrong  in  asserting  that  *'The 
story  was  reprinted  zvith  certain  added  details  obtained 
from  the  brother  of  Colonel  Jaqness." 

The  brother  added  not  a  syllable,  and  even  much 
less  than  a  sympathetic  reading  of  the  article  of  No- 
vember 11,  1909,  would  have  shown  this  clearly,  and 
that  your  assertions  were  a  direct  reflection  on  Dr. 
Watson. 

(4)  Your  grounds  for  discrediting  the  story  is  the 
assumption  that  Colonel  Jaquess  had  magnified  and 
colored  the  incident  almost  beyond  recognition  during 
the  fifty  years  that  elapsed  between  the  incident  and 
the  telling. 

Stories  grow  by  retelling.  There  is  no  evidence 
that  Colonel  Jaquess  repeated  the  story  more  than 
three  times,  once  to  Dr.  Watson,  once  to  the  Minne- 
apolis ministers,  and  once  to  his  comrades  at  their 
reunion. 

Your  questioning  reflects  on  the  character  of 
Colonel  Jaquess,  and  calls  for  a  showing  of  the  kind 
of  man  he  really  was,  which  I  will  aim  to  touch  on 
hereafter. 

Why  Colonel  Jaquess  did  not  repeat  this  story  over 

Twenty-five 


and  over  again  during  the  fifty  years,  so  that  others 
who  had  written  about  Lincoln  should  have  learned 
of  it  before  1897,  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  Colonel 
Jaquess  was  not  living  in  America  at  the  time  the 
questions  were  being  raised  as  to  the  religious  beliefs 
of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  in  1866,  he  went  into  the 
Freedmen's  Bureau,  and  until  1875  was  engaged  there 
and  in  work  of  restoration  in  the  South.  He  then 
became  interested  in  business  which  took  him  to  Eng- 
land, and  for  over  twenty  years  he  resided  abroad. 

The  record  only  shows  that  he  was  able  to  attend 
two  of  the  reunions  of  his  regiment,  at  both  of  which 
he  made  the  annual  address. 

In  1889  he  came  from  London,  expressly  to  attend 
that  meeting,  and  after  traveling  4,000  miles  and 
meeting  his  comrades  at  their  reunion,  he  stayed  but 
twenty-four  hours,  and  returned  to  meet  pressing 
engagements  in  England. 

The  other  time  that  he  met  with  the  regiment  was 
in  September,  1897,  when  he  not  only  made  the  annual 
address,  but  related  the  incident  in  regard  to  Mr. 
Lincoln,  which  Dr.  Watson  quoted. 

Bishop  Fowler's  oration,  to  which  he  referred,  and 
which  recalled  the  incident  to  his  mind,  was  delivered 
first  in  Minneapolis  in  1894,  not  in  IQ04,  as  you  give 
the  date  on  page  111.  I  had  heard  that  admirable 
oration  twice  before  1904,  and  do  not  accept  your  at- 
tempted detractions.  The  Bishop,  even  if  not  having 
"had  any  training  in  or  inclination  toward  historical 
investigation,"  had  the  advantage  of  being  personally 
acquainted  with  Lincoln,  and  with  many  of  his 
advisors. 

Whether   Dr.   Jaquess   had   heard   of   the   life   of 

Twenty-six 


Lincoln  by  Herndon,  or  by  Lamon,  does  not  appear, 
but  he  had  heard  of  Bishop  Fowler's  lecture,  and  as  he 
says  that  that  lecture  reminded  him  that,  "I  happen  to 
know  something  on  that  subject  (Lincoln's  religion) 
that  very  few  persons  know.  My  wife,  who  has  been 
dead  nearly  two  years,  was  the  only  witness  of  what  I 
am  going  to  state  to  you  as  having  occurred,"  and  then 
he  narrates  the  occurrence  to  his  comrades. 

Your  next  statement  is  that  the  story,  as  it  is  thus 
told,  lacks  confirmatory  evidence.  The  character  of 
Dr.  Jaquess,  then  in  his  seventy-seventh  year,  would 
seem  to  be  sufficient  in  itself ;  but  you  say  that  a 
considerable  number  of  events  which  occurred  in  sub- 
sequent years  might  reasonably  have  been  expected  to 
have  been  otherwise  than  they  really  were,  if  Lincoln 
had  been  converted  in  a  Methodist  church. 

What  are  those  events?  Is  a  definition  of  "con- 
version," as  well  as  a  definition  of  "infidelity,"  re- 
quired ? 

You  will  note  the  language  of  Dr.  Jaquess :  "Now, 
I  have  seen  many  persons  converted.  I  have  seen 
hundreds  brought  to  Christ,  and  if  ever  a  person  was 
converted,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  converted  that  night 
in  my  house.  He  never  joined  my  church,  but  I  will 
always  believe  that  since  that  night  Abraham  Lincoln 
lived  and  died  a  Christian  gentleman." 

Was  not  this  last  true?  In  fact,  is  it  not  corrobo- 
rated in  every  known  event  which  occurred  in  Lincoln's 
life  in  subsequent  years? 

When  Lincoln  returned  from  Washington  in  1849, 
Colonel  Jaquess  had  gone  from  Springfield.*  Who 
his  successor  was  I  have  not  inquired. 

♦Note— W.  G.  Jaquess,  "The  Drummer  Boy  of  Chicka- 
mauga,"  now  Superintendent  of  Schools  of  Tunica  County, 
Mississippi,  in  a  letter  to  his  cousin,  Miss  Fannie  M. 
Jaquess,    said,    "In    a    conversation    with    Senator    Cullom, 

Twenty-seven 


Lincoln  with  his  logical  mind  was  not  liable  to 
attend  church  where  the  preaching  was  poor,  and  I 
know  of  no  evidence  that  he  attended  any  church  after 
his  return  from  \\'ashington,  until  after  February, 
1850,  when  his  wife  attended,  and  in  1852  joined  the 
Presbyterian  church.  He  went  with  her  to  hear  Dr. 
Smith,  who  was  an  able  preacher.  Dr.  Smith  did  not 
claim,  so  far  as  your  records  show,  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  converted  under  his  preaching,  or  in  his  church 
(he  never  joined  it),  and  the  most  that  can  be  claimed 
is  that  he  enjoyed  Dr.  Smith's  preaching — that  he  was 
helped  by  it,  and  that  Dr.  Smith  with  his  book  "The 
Christian's  Defense,"  helped  Lincoln  to  dissolve  his 
doubts ;  he  found  the  arguments  "unanswerable." 

It  was  a  question  of  intellect  and  mind.  Conversion 
rather  is  a  matter  of  heart,  I  take  it. 

I  have  heard  that  Satan  often  comes  back  with  old 
or  new  doubts  after  conversion.  Lincoln  seems  to 
have  been  so  assailed  again  in  1862,  and  it  was  an 
Episcopal  rector  who  helped  him.  (Johnson  on  Lincoln 
the  Christian,  pp.  30-34.) 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  story,  as  told  by  Colonel 
Taquess,  does  fit  into  the  life  of  Lincoln,  and  that  there 
is  no  good  reason  for  questioning  any  essential  point  of 
Colonel  Jaquess'  narrative. 

You  call  New  Salem  Mr.  Lincoln's  Alma  Mater — 
well  and  good.  Mr.  Lincoln  came  from  his  Alma 
Mater  on  his  borrowed  horse,  with  his  mother's  Bible, 
Aesop's  Fables,  and  Pilgrim's  Progress,  but  like  many 
another  young  man,  he  evidently  had  been  using  his 

of  Illinois,  several  years  ago,  in  discussing  old  times, 
father's  name  was  mentioned  quite  often,  and  he  remarked 
that  he  and  Mr.  Lincoln  frequently  went  to  hear  father 
preach,  and  that  they  both  enjoyed  his  sermons  very  much." 
He  further  said:  "I  have  not  seen  Mr.  Barton's  book." 

Twenty-eight 


intellect  and  his  reason  while  in  that  school,  and  came 
out  with  many  unsolved  doubts.  He  had,  for  the  time 
being,  gotten  away  from  his  mother's  prayers,  although 
he  carried  and  read,  and  had  memorized  much  of  his 
mother's  Bible,  and  the  book  and  preaching  of  Dr. 
Smith  was  what  was  needed  to  help  him  over  the 
doubts. 

The  evidence  seems  clear,  aside  from  Colonel 
Jaquess'  report,  that  somewhere  between  the  time  he 
alighted  in  front  of  Joshua  Speed's  Store,  April  15, 
1837,  and  that  February  day  in  1861,  when  he  stood  on 
the  platform  of  the  train,  there  had  been  a  decided 
change  of  heart — a  new  birth — a  conversion.  His 
whole  life  shows  it,  and  I  know  of  no  event  subsequent 
to  1847  that  contradicts  the  fact  narrated  by  Colonel 
Jaquess. 

That  there  was  much  unbelief  in  Springfield,  as 
well  as  in  New  Salem,  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that 
each  of  the  three  close  friends  of  Lincoln — Herndon, 
Lamon  and  Speed — believed  himself  to  be  an  infidel. 

After  twenty-five  years  of  such  environment,  I\Ir. 
Lincoln  came  forth  on  his  way  to  the  presidency,  with 
his  mother's  Bible  in  his  hand,  a  prayer  upon  his  lips, 
and  a  firm  faith  in  his  heart  that  there  was  a  prayer- 
hearing  God,  and  that  if  the  great  God  who  assisted 
Washington,  would  be  with  and  aid  him,  he  would  not 
fail  in  his  allotted  task. 

Lincoln  was  converted  just  as  Dr.  Jaquess  related. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Lincoln's  closest  friend, 
Joshua  Speed,  after  his  conversation  with  Lincoln  in 
the  Summer  of  1864,  upon  belief  in  the  Bible,  over- 
came his  skepticism  and  joined  the  IMethodist  Episcopal 
church. 

You    have    deliberately    so    reflected    upon    Colonel 

Twenty-nine 


Jaquess,  "the  Fighting  Parson,"  that  a  sHght  acquaint- 
ance with  him  should  be  sought.  You  lay  down  as  the 
first  question  in  weighing  testimony,  "Is  the  witness 
credible  ?" 

It  is  well.  What  kind  of  a  man  was  Rev.  James 
Frazier  Jaquess,  D.  D.,  pastor  of  the  ^Methodist  Epis- 
copal church,  Springfield,  from  the  Spring  of  1847 
until  1849?     [Fall  of  1846  until  1848.] 

Chapter  8,  of  the  History  of  the  'Treacher  Regi- 
ment," sometimes  called  "The  Methodist  Res^iment," 
which  was  enlisted  by  Colonel  Jaquess,  and  com- 
manded by  him  from  Shilo  to  the  end  of  the  war,  is 
devoted  to  the  life  of  its  colonel,  was  written  by  one 
who  knew  him  well,  and  says  of  him  as  a  preacher 
and  teacher : 

"During  his  whole  career  as  a  preacher  and 
teacher,  Mr.  Jaquess  was  a  man  of  strongly  marked 
individuality.  His  address  was  polished  and  win- 
ning, his  presence  magnetic  to  a  marked  degree. 
He  influenced  all  with  whom  he  came  in  contact, 
and  made  friends  by  the  thousand  in  all  parts  of  the 
country.  He  was  in  great  demand  in  the  pulpit  and 
on  the  platform,  his  oratory  being  of  the  earnest, 
electric  kind,  that  was  popular  with  all  classes  of 
people,  from  the  ripest  scholar  to  the  humblest 
laborer  or  frontiersman.  He  was  never  abashed  in 
any  company,  and  no  man  ever  felt  abashed  in  his. 
He  took  a  living  interest  in  all  public  affairs  ;  but  in 
his  chosen  sphere  as  a  Christian  minister  he  shone 
to  unsurpassed  advantage.  Whenever  it  was  an- 
nounced that  he  was  to  preach,  whether  at  a  city 
church,  a  cross-road  schoolhouse,  or  a  backwoods 
camp-meeting,  hundreds  flocked  to  hear  and  went 
away  to  praise." 

Just  the  man  Lincoln  would  be  expected  to  wish  to 
hear,  and  to  be  willing  to  pay  a  quarter  to  be  sure  that 
he  might  not  be  bored  by  a  journeyman. 

Thirty 


After  Shilo,  he  resigned  as  chaplain  of  the  Sixth 
Illinois,  and  asked  the  privilege  of  raising  and  com- 
manding a  "Methodist  Regiment"  for  the  war.  This 
regiment  was  unique,  nearly  all  of  the  commissioned 
officers  from  the  colonel  down,  and  twenty  of  the 
privates,  were  licensed  Methodist  preachers,  while 
something  over  600  of  the  soldiers  in  the  ranks  were 
members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church.  When 
mustered  out,  the  record  showed  that  it  had  been  in  ten 
battles,  and  many  skirmishes,  and  of  the  972  members, 
215  had  been  killed  or  died  of  wounds  or  disease,  while 
182  had  been  discharged  on  account  of  wounds  or  dis- 
abilities ;  that  its  colonel  had  two  horses  killed  under 
him  in  battle.  His  son  of  fourteen  years  was  a  drum- 
mer boy,  captured  and  escaped,  and  is  the  subject  of 
the  romance,  "The  Boy  of  Chickamauga." 

In  1864,  when  all  at  home  were  tired  of  the  war, 
certain  parties  from  the  South  were  in  Canada,  at 
Niagara  Falls,  talking  peace,  and  Horace  Greeley  was 
urging  Lincoln  to  treat  with  them,  and  the  Peace  Party 
in  the  North  was  growing  like  a  snowball  upon  a 
descending  incline.  Lincoln  believed  it  would  be  desir- 
able, if  possible,  to  sound  Jefferson  Davis  personally, 
and  as  he  expressed  it,  "draw  his  fire." 

Colonel  Jaquess  had  proposed  undertaking  such  a 
trip  to  General  Rosencrans,  who  wrote  to  Lincoln, 
forwarding  Jaquess*  letter  by  J.  R.  Gilmore,  the  anti- 
slavery  writer  and  lecturer,  of  Boston.*  Gilmore  had 
three  interviews  with  the  President,  who,  while  anxious 
to  obtain  the  information,  said  the  trip,  if  made,  must 
be  taken  on  individual,  unofficial  responsibility,  and 
that  it  would  be  dangerous,  and  finally  Lincoln  insisted 
that  Gilmore  accompany  Jaquess.    The  trip  was  made. 

*See  Appendix  IV. 

Thirty-one 


They  carried  "terms"  to  be  talked  to,  but  under  no 
circumstances  to  be  known  as  dictated  by  Lincoln. 
These  were  characteristic — ''Surrender,  Union,  Eman- 
cipation,— then  Amnesty,  Compensation  for  Slaves." 
Lincoln  said,  'T  know  Jaquess  will  be  discreet.  Explain 
to  him  why  I  can  not  see  him  personally.  I  don't  want 
to  hurt  his  feelings." 

A  two  hour  conference  was  had  with  Mr.  Davis 
and  Benjamin,  his  secretary  of  state. 

A  partial  report  was  published  in  the  September 
and  December  Atlantic  ^Monthly,  1864,  as  ''Our  Visit 
to  Richmond."  The  balance  as  "A  Suppressed  Chapter 
in  History"  in  the  same  magazine,  April,  1887.  The 
result  was  that  they  drew  from  Davis  personally  the 
ultimatum,  "We  are  not  fighting  for  slavery,  zve  are 
fighting  for  independence,"  and  Lincoln  said  to  Gil- 
more,  "This  may  be  worth  as  much  to  us  as  a  half 
dozen  battles.  Jaquess  was  right,  God's  hand  is  in  it. 
Publish  a  card  of  the  result  of  your  visit ;  get  it  into  the 
Tribune ;  everybody  is  agog  to  hear  your  report.  It 
will  show  the  country  that  I  didn't  fight  shy  of 
Greeley's  Niagara  business  without  a  reason." 

The  result  of  the  visit  was  published  all  over  the 
North,  the  Peace  Party  melted  away  and  Lincoln  was 
triumphantly  re-elected. 

When  Gilmore  was  urging  the  President  to  give 
Jaquess  an  official  standing  for  his  trip,  Lincoln  said, 
"I  know  Jaquess.  He  feels  that  he  is  acting  as  God's 
servant  and  messenger,  and  he  would  recoil  from  any- 
thing like  political  finesse.  We  want  to  draw  Davis' 
fire,  but  we  must  do  it  fairly." 

Garfield,  Chase,  Sumner  and  Rosencrans  all  ap- 
proved  of    Colonel   Jaquess'   action,   and   were   with 

Thirty-two 


liiiiiiiiiwiiMMmPN^i"'   ^'"'  irg^^l^a^^m^ 


•^i:..i.lt^\^ii3^S.'^  -j^  '--■ 


msA 


President  Lincoln  delighted  with  the  result  as  a  great 
service  to  the  country. 

Gilmore  in  his  report  in  1864,  in  the  Atlantic,  said 
of  his  companion :  "A  man  more  cool,  more  brave, 
more  self-confident,  more  self-devoted  than  this  quiet 
'Western  Parson,'  it  never  was  my  fortune  to  en- 
counter." 

Now  it  was  just  thirty-three  years  from  the  time  of 
Colonel  Jaquess'  return  from  Richmond  with  the  word 
that  war  or  disunion  was  the  only  terms  possible,  and 
the  whole  country  was  ringing  with  his  name,  that  he 
related  to  his  comrades  in  arms  the  story  of  Lincoln's 
visit  to  his  parsonage  in  Springfield  in  1847.  He  was 
then  still  vigorous  and  clear-headed,  though  in  his 
seventy-seventh  year.  He  was  not  the  man  either  to 
magnify  or  exaggerate.  He  zvas  a  credible  witness, 
and  I  submit  that  Dr.  Chapman  was  correct  when  he 
recorded  this  incident  "with  complete  assurance  of  its 
correctness,"  and  that  he  was  far  more  correct  than 
you  when  he  wrote  in  his  Latest  LigJit  on  Lincoln, 
"There  is  every  reason  for  giving  this  remarkable  story 
unquestioning  credence." 

I  beg  to  enclose  a  copy  of  the  photograph  of  the 
witness.  I  am  informed  by  his  niece,  Miss  Fanny  M. 
Jaquess,  Acting  Secretary  of  the  Woman's  Christian 
Association  of  Minneapolis,  that  she  understands  the 
original  was  taken  in  1889,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
reunion  that  year.* 

*Note — W.  G.  Jaquess,  Superintendent  of  Education, 
Tunica,  Miss.,  writes :  "I  am  sure  the  address  of  father  at 
the  reunion  of  the  73rd  was  correct  in  every  detail.  I  doubt 
if  father  repeated  this  story  often,  in  fact  am  sure  he  did  not. 
I  never  heard  him  do  so  but  a  very  few  times.  I  am  sure  the 
facts  were  so  fixed  in  his  mind  that  he  could  not  have  been 
mistaken."  At  the  request  of  a  Mr.  Leslie  "I  sent  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  reunion  in  which  father's  statement  ap- 
peared, and  was  promised  a  copy  of  Rev.  Barton's  book, 

but  have  not  seen  it." 

Thirty-three 


Creed 

You  have  compiled  for  Abraham  Lincoln  a  "creed" 
of  nine  articles.  I  have  no  fault  to  find  with  any  one 
article  taken  from  his  addresses,  messages,  proclama- 
tions, and  personal  letters,  written  by  himself.  Half 
truths  by  omission  is  a  fault. 

You  say  in  regard  to  the  selections  you  have  made 
for  your  purpose : 

"We  might  go  much  farther  and  could  find  a 
considerable  body  of  additional  material,  but  this  is 
sufficient  and  more  than  sufficient  for  our  purpose. 
In  these  utterances  may  be  found  something  of  the 
determinism  that  was  hammered  into  Lincoln  by 
the  early  Baptist  preachers  and  riveted  by  James 
Smith,  along  with  some  of  the  humanitarianism  of 
Parker  and  Channing,  and  much  which  lay 
unstratified  in  Lincoln's  own  mind  but  flowed  spon- 
taneously from  his  pen  or  dropped  from  his  lips 
because  it  was  native  to  his  thinking  and  had  come 
to  be  a  component  part  of  his  life.  Anyone  who 
cares  to  do  so  may  piece  these  utterances  together 
and  test  his  success  in  making  a  creed  out  of  them. 
They  lend  themselves  somewhat  readily  to  such  an 
arrangement." 

As  to  the  early  preaching,  you  had  already  recorded 
that  against  it,  "the  boy  Abe  Lincoln  rebelled,"  and  that 
he  only  mimicked  and  ridiculed  their  hammering. 

You  have  again  forgotten  his  mother,  and  failed  to 
give  her  credit  for  the  ''much  which  lay  unstratified  in 
Lincoln's  own  mind — which  was  native  to  his  thinking 
and  had  come  to  be  a  component  part  of  his  life." 

In  your  study  of  fourteen  pages  of  the  question  of 
"Why  did  Lincoln  never  join  the  church?"  you  found 
yourself  compelled  to  accept  Lincoln's  own  answer,  as 
established  beyond  any  reasonable  doubt,  as  being  his 

Thirty-four 


own.  and  might,  it  seems  to  me,  have  been  properly 
made  an  article  of  this  constructed  creed : 


<(  \ 


7  hd'icve  that  zi'Jiosocvcr  loves  the  Lord,  his 
God,  ccith  all  his  heart  and  soul,  and  mind  and 
strength,  and  his  neighbor  as  himself,  is  a  Christian 
and  should  be  admitted  as  a  member  of  the  visible 
ehureJi." 

The  testimony  supporting  this  article  in  the  re- 
ported language  of  Mr.  Lincoln  himself  is : 

"I  have  never  united  myself  to  any  church, 
because  I  have  found  difficulty  in  giving  my  assent, 
without  mental  reservation,  to  the  long,  complicated 
statements  of  Christian  doctrine  which  characterize 
their  articles  of  belief  and  confessions  of  faith. 
When  any  church  will  inscribe  over  its  altars,  as  its 
sole  qualification  for  membership,  the  Saviour's 
condensed  statement  of  the  substance  of  both  law 
and  gospel,  *Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  v.ith 
all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy 
mind,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,'  that  church  will 
I  join  with  all  my  heart  and  all  my  soul." 

Whether  vou  are  riMit  or  not  in  vour  contention 
that  the  fault  was  not  all  with  the  churches,  but  that 
"Some  share  of  the  responsibility  for  his  failure  to 
unite  with  the  church  must  belong  to  Lincoln  himself," 
it  would  have  been  much  fairer  and  seemed  less  par- 
tisan to  not  have  omitted  from  a  "creed"  thrust  upon 
him  in  the  first  person,  this  article  again  and  again,  an- 
nounced by  him  and  proven  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt 
by  three  credible  witnesses,  one  of  them  Rev.  Phineas 
D.  Gurley,  Presbyterian  pastor,  of  Washington,  one 
Hon.  Henry  C.  Deming.  Congressman  for  Connecticut, 
who  testified  to  it  June  8,  1865,  before  there  was  time 
to  permit  any  growth  or  exaggeration. 

You  say  "Lincoln  lacked  some  of  the  finer  feelings." 
He  never  lacked  in  scrupulous,  conscientious  honesty ; 

Thirty-five 


he  never  tried  to  mislead  a  court  or  jury  by  suppressing 
material  testimony,  rather  he  ran  away  and  washed  his 
hands. 

You  entirely  ignore  the  teaching  of  his  mother, 
slight  her  as  he  never  did,  and  yet  repeat  "though  a 
Calvinist  in  his  early  training" — "The  Calvinism  which 
he  inherited  and  heard  through  his  childhood."  Trained 
by  whom?  Inherited  from  whom?  Heard  where? 
Not  at  his  mother's  knee.  I  am  sure  your  historical 
research  has  found  no  evidence  that  any  such  inher- 
itance, training  or  teaching  came  from  this  mother. 

The  mother  and  the  mother's  influence  can  not  be 
thus  ignored  in  any  "True  Story  of  Lincoln's  Life  and 
Convictions."* 

The  People  Called  Methodists 

Having^  on  page  48,  asserted,  for  an  evident  pur- 
pose, as  a  statement  of  fact,  "that  the  Lincoln  family 
appears  never  at  any  time  in  its  history  to  have  been 
strongly  under  the  influence  of  Methodism,"  thus 
slighting  and  ignoring  entirely  the  mother,  and  your 
own  statement  on  page  36,  as  to  her  participation  be- 
fore and  after  her  marriage  in  camp-meetings  in  Ken- 
tucky, you  again,  on  page  64,  make  the  assertion  that 
Lincoln's  "association  with  Methodists  was  largely  in 
the  political  arena,  where  he  crossed  swords  three  times 
with  Peter  Cartwright."  This  statement  lacks  histor- 
ical accuracy. 

*Note— In  the  "Outlook"  of  April  14,  1920,  Lyman  Ab- 
bott, reviewing  Dr.  Barton's  book,  says : 

"Herndon  says  he  was  a  fatalist — Barton  that  he  was  a 
Calvinist.  He  certainly  was  not  a  John  Calvin  Calvinist. 
John  Calvin  held  that  man  had  lost  his  freedom  in  the  fall : 
and  Abraham  Lincoln's  whole  understanding  of  life  was 
based  on  his  belief  in  the  free  will,  and  therefore  the  moral 
responsibility  of  man." 

Thirty-six 


After  complimenting  the  Presiding  Elder  Cart- 
wright,  as  a  doughty  hero  of  the  cross,  who  exerted  a 
mighty  influence  for  good  in  early  Illinois,  you  say : 
**He,  Lincoln,  could  not  have  failed  to  respect  such 
men,  but  it  is  not  altogether  certain  that  he  was  tempted 
to  love  them." 

It  is  not  altogether  certain  just  what  you  mean  by 
"them,"  but  I  hold  no  brief  for  the  Methodists ;  they 
need  no  defense. 

I  was  impelled  to  write  this  letter  by  reason  of  the 
glaring  injustice  and  wrong  attempted  to  be  done  to 
Abraham  Lincoln's  mother,  and  to  my  friend,  Dr. 
Watson,  and  the  memory  of  his  friend.  Dr.  Jaquess. 
Both  of  these  wrongs  grated  upon  my  sense  of  justice. 

As  to  Lincoln's  love  of  Methodists,  the  history  is 
too  full  to  require  citations.  They  and  their  influence 
were  ever  with  his  family  and  with  him,  in  increasing 
numbers  and  force,  from  the  cabin  in  Kentucky  to  the 
White  House  and  the  tomb,  where  Bishop  Simpson 
pronounced  the  funeral  oration. 

The  soul  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  too  large  to 
admit  of  prejudice  or  bickering  over  sects,  doctrines,  or 
dogmas.  While  he  prayed,  "God  bless  the  Methodist 
church,"  he  added,  "Bless  all  the  churches,"  and  while 
at  his  invitation  both  Bishop  Simpson  and  Bishop  Janes 
prayed  with  him  in  the  White  House,  so  did  his  Quaker 
lady  friend  more  than  once,  and  he  said  to  her,  "I  feel 
helped  and  strengthened  by  your  prayers." 

He  also  found  strength  and  help  from  the  Episcopal 
rector,  Francis  Vinton,  D.  D,,  as  well  as  from  the 
prayers  of  Dr.  Smith  and  Dr.  Gurley,  the  pastors  of 
his  wife's  Presbyterian  churches.  He  was  one  of  the 
elect  who  learned  of  the  doctrine  by  willing  to  do  the 
will  of  his  Master,  and  any  attempt  to  contract  that 

Thirty-seven 


great  soul  to  promote  a  dogma  is  unworthy  and  un- 
seemly. Neither  Dr.  Smith  nor  Dr.  Gurley  ever  made 
such  an  attempt,  or  intimated  such  a  claim. 

Bishop  Simpson  is  the  only  one  to  whom  it  is 
known  that  Lincoln  showed  his  proposed  Emancipation 
Proclamation  before  he  read  it  to  the  Cabinet,  and  he 
suggested  that  there  ought  to  be  a  recognition  of  God 
in  that  important  paper,  which  may  have  led  to  Lin- 
coln's accepting  and  adopting  the  last  sentence  in  prac- 
tically the  language  submitted  by  a  member  of  his 
Cabinet. 

Dr.  Bowman,  afterwards  Bishop,  was  chaplain  of 
the  Senate  during  the  last  year  of  the  war,  and  tells  of 
Bishop  Simpson  being  sent  for  by  Lincoln  on  many 
occasions  for  consultation  upon  public  matters,  and 
that  Lincoln  held  him  in  the  highest  esteem,  and  at- 
tached much  importance  to  his  counsel ;  never  failed  to 
attend  upon  his  ministry,  as  he  preached  often  in 
Washington,  while  Lincoln  was  in  the  White  House, 
and  Dr.  Bowman  gives  this  instance : 

*'On  one  occasion,  with  tw^o  or  three  friends,  I 
was  conversing  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  near  the  distant 
window  in  the  'Blue  Room,'  when,  unexpectedly, 
the  door  opened  and  Bishop  Simpson  entered.  Im- 
mediately the  President  raised  both  arms,  and 
started  for  the  bishop  almost  on  a  run.  When  he 
reached  him  he  grasped  him  with  both  hands  and 
exclaimed,  'Why,  Bishop  Simpson,  how  glad  I  am 
to  see  you !'  In  a  few  moments  we  retired,  and 
left  them  alone.  I  afterwards  learned  that  they 
spent  several  hours  in  private,  and  that  this  was  one 
of  the  times  when  the  bishop  had  been  specially 
asked  by  the  President  to  come  to  Washington  for 
such  an  interview." 

The  task  would  be  endless  to  show  the  many  cases 
where  not  only  Lincoln  was  influenced  by,  but  where  it 

Thirty-eight 


is  "altogether  certain"  that  he  was  not  only  tempted 
but  that  he  did  love  such  men, — among  them  Rev. 
Peter  Akers,  D.  D.,  at  the  camp-meetings  near  the 
Salem  church ;  Dr.  Jaquess,  in  Springfield ;  Dr.  Bow- 
man, Bishop  Janes  and  Bishop  Simpson  at  Washing- 
ton— but  enough. 

As  I  have  said  before,  I  have  no  desire  to  prove  that 
Lincoln  was  a  Methodist,  nor  have  I  any  need  to 
defend  the  Methodist  church  or  individual  Methodists. 
This  letter  has  been  called  forth  by  the  injustice  at- 
tempted to  be  done  to  the  memory  of  Lincoln's  angel 
mother,  and  the  slight  deliberately  attempted  to  be 
placed  upon  my  personal  friend  and  former  pastor,  Dr. 
Watson,  and  I  am,  Sir, 

Yours  for  an  unbiased  and  true  story  of  Lincoln's 
Spiritual  Life  and  Convictions, 


405  Marquette  Avenue. 


Thirty-nine 


REV.  COL.   JAMES   F.   JAQUESS 


Appendix  I 


THE  CONVERSION  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
By  the  Rev.  Edward  L.  Watson. 

The  reUgion  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is  so  much  in  de- 
bate that  I  feel  called  upon  to  give  the  following  nar- 
rative of  an  event  of  which  little  seems  to  be  known — 
and  which  is  of  real  importance  in  understanding  the 
man.  He  has  been  called  an  infidel — an  unbeliever  of 
varying  degrees  of  blatancy.  That  he  was  a  Christian 
in  the  real  sense  of  the  term  is  plain  from  his  life. 
That  he  was  converted  during  a  Methodist  revival 
seems  not  to  be  a  matter  of  common  report.  The  per- 
sonal element  of  this  narrative  is  necessary  to  unfold 
the  story.  In  1894  I  was  appointed  to  the  pastorate  of 
the  Hennepin  Avenue  ]\Iethodist  Episcopal  church, 
Minneapolis,  Minn.,  by  Bishop  Cyrus  D.  Foss,  being 
transferred  from  Frederick,  I\Id.,  a  charge  in  Balti- 
more Conference.  It  was  in  October  that  we  entered 
the  parsonage,  which  was  a  double  house,  the  other 
half  being  rented  by  the  trustees.  Shortly  after  our 
occupancy  of  the  church  house  William  B.  Jacquess 
moved  into  the  rented  half  of  the  property,  and  through 
this  fact  I  became  acquainted  with  Colonel  James  F. 
Jacquess,  his  brother.  At  this  time  Colonel  Jacquess 
was  an  old  man  of  eighty  years  or  more,  of  command- 
ing presence  and  wearing  a  long  beard,  which  was  as 
white  as  snow.  His  title  grew  out  of  the  fact  of  his 
being  the  commanding  officer  of  the  Seventy-third 
Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry,  known  as  the  Preacher 
Regiment.  Its  name  was  given  through  the  publica- 
tion in  the  Cincinnati  Commercial  in  September,  1862, 
of  the  roster  of  its  officers : 

Forty-one 


Colonel — Rev.  James  F.  Jacqiiess,  D.  D.,  late  presi- 
dent of  Quincy  College. 

Lieutenant  Colonel — Rev.  Benjamin  F.  Northcott. 

Major — Rev.  "VA^illiam  A.  Presson. 

Captains — Company  B,  Rev.  W.  B.  M.  Colt;  Com- 
pany C,  Rev.  P.  McNiitt ;  Company  F,  Rev.  George 
W.  Montgomery;  Company  H,  Rev.  James  I.  David- 
son ;  Company  I,  Rev.  Peter  Wallace ;  Company  K, 
Rev.  R.  H.  Laughlin. 

Six  or  seven  of  the  twenty  lieutenants  were  also 
licensed  ]\Iethodist  preachers.  Henry  A.  Castle,  ser- 
geant major,  was  the  author  of  the  article  and  a  son- 
in-law,  if  I  mistake  not,  of  Colonel  Jacquess. 

The  history  of  this  regiment  is,  in  brief,  as  follows : 
It  was  organized  at  the  instance  of  Governor  Dick 
Yates,  under  Colonel  Jacquess,  in  August,  1862,  at 
Camp  Butler,  in  Illinois,  and  became  part  of  General 
Buell's  army.  It  fought  nobly  at  Perryville,  and  in 
every  battle  in  which  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  was 
engaged,  from  October,  1862,  to  the  rout  of  Hood's 
army  at  Nashville.  Its  dead  were  found  at  Murfrees- 
boro,  Chickamauga,  Missionary  Ridge,  where  Colonel 
Jacquess  won  especial  distinction,  and  in  the  succession 
of  battles  from  Chattanooga  to  the  fall  of  Atlanta.  It 
was  frequently  complimented  by  the  commanding  gen- 
erals and  was  unsurpassed  in  bravery  and  endurance. 
It  left  the  state  one  of  the  largest,  and  returned  one  of 
the  smallest,  having  lost  two-thirds  of  its  men  in  its 
three  years'  service. 

Colonel  Jacquess  was  its  only  colonel  and  came 
home  disabled  by  wounds  received  at  Chickamauga, 
where  two  horses  were  shot  under  him.  He  refused  to 
the  last  (1897)  to  receive  a  pension,  until  in  his  ex- 
treme old  age,  at  the  urgent  request  of  the  Society  of 
the  Survivors  of  the  Seventy-third  Illinois,  he  allowed 

Forty-two 


it  to  be  applied  for.  He  pathetically  said :  "My  grand- 
fathers were  Revolutionary  soldiers  and  you  could  get 
up  a  row  if  you  mentioned  pensions.  My  father  and 
my  uncles  were  in  the  War  of  1812,  and  would  take 
none.  I  had  hoped  not  to  receive  one — but  I  am  un- 
able now  to  do  anything,  and  it  has  been  my  desire, 
and  not  the  fault  of  the  government,  that  I  have  never 
received  a  pension."  These  words  were  spoken  in  1897 
— and  not  long  afterward  Colonel  Jacquess  went  to  his 
reward. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  war  President  Lincoln  sent 
Colonel  Jacquess  as  a  secret  emissary  to  arrange  for 
peace  and  the  settlement  of  the  slave  question,  so  as  to 
avert  further  shedding  of  blood.  His  adventures  in 
this  role  are  of  thrilling  interest.  The  foregoing  is  told 
to  show  the  quality  of  the  man  whom  it  was  my  priv- 
ilege to  meet  in  1896,  when  he  was  in  extreme  old 
age.  The  honors  conferred  upon  him  by  President 
Lincoln  and  the  confidence  reposed  in  him  grew  out  of 
events  which  preceded  the  war.  This  was  no  other 
than  the  conversion  of  Mr.  Lincoln  under  the  ministry 
of  the  Rev.  James  F.  Jacquess,  at  Springfield,  III.,  in 
the  year  1839.  The  Rev.  James  F.  Jacquess  was  sta- 
tioned at  this  new  town — then  of  but  a  few  thousand 
inhabitants — in  1839,  when  Lincoln  met  him  during  a 
series  of  revival  services  conducted  in  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church.  Lincoln  had  but  recently  come  to 
the  town — having  removed  from  New  Salem,  which 
was  in  a  decadent  state.  As  a  member  of  the  legisla- 
ture, Lincoln  had  been  a  chief  agent  in  establishing  the 
state  capitol  at  Springfield,  and  though  in  debt  and 
exceedingly  poor,  he  hoped  to  find  friends  and  practice 
in  the  growing  town.  He  was  then  thirty  years  of 
age,  and  had  had  few  advantages  of  any  sort.  It 
was  on  a  certain  night,  when  the  pastor  preached  from 

Forty-three 


the  text,  "Ye  must  be  born  again,"  that  Lincohi  was 
in  attendance  and  was  greatly  interested.  After  the 
service  he  came  round  to  the  Httle  parsonage,  and,  Hke 
another  Nicodemus,  asked,  *'How  can  these  things  be  ?" 
Mr.  Jacquess  explained  as  best  he  could  the  mystery 
of  the  new  birth,  and  at  Lincoln's  request,  he  and  his 
wife  kneeled  and  prayed  with  the  future  President.  It 
was  not  long  before  Mr.  Lincoln  expressed  his  sense 
of  pardon  and  arose  with  peace  in  his  heart. 

The  narrative,  as  told  thus  far,  is  as  my  memory 
recalled  it.  Since  writing  it,  the  same  as  told  by 
Colonel  Jacquess  has  recently  been  discovered  by  me 
in  Minutes  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Eleventh  Annual 
Reunion  Survivors  Seventy-third  Regiment,  Illinois 
Infantry,  Volunteers  (page  30),  a  copy  of  which  is  be- 
fore me.  This  meeting,  the  last  (probably)  that 
Colonel  Jacquess  attended,  was  held  Tuesday  and 
Wednesday,  September  28,  29,  1897,  in  the  Supreme 
Court  room  of  the  State  Capitol  Building,  Spring- 
field, 111.  To  quote  Colonel  Jacquess :  "The  men- 
tion of  Mr.  Lincoln's  name  recalls  to  my  mind  an  oc- 
currence that  perhaps  I  ought  to  mention.  I  notice  that 
a  number  of  lectures  are  being  delivered  recently  on 
Abraham  Lincoln.  Bishop  Fowler  has  a  most  splendid 
lecture  on  Abraham  Lincoln,  but  they  all,  when  they 
reach  one  point,  run  against  a  stone  wall,  and  that  is 
in  reference  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  sentiments.  I 
happen  to  know  something  on  that  subject  that  very 
few  persons  know.  My  wife,  who  has  been  dead  near- 
ly two  years,  was  the  only  witness  of  what  I  am  going 
to  state  to  you  as  having  occurred.  Very  soon  after 
my  second  year's  work  as  a  minister  in  the  Illinois 
Conference,  I  was  sent  to  Springfield.  There  were 
ministers  in  the  Illinois  Conference  who  had  been  labor- 
ing  for  twenty-five  years   to  get  to   Springfield,  the 

Forty-four 


capital  of  the  state.  When  the  legislature  met,  there 
were  a  great  many  people  here,  and  it  was  thought  to 
be  a  matter  of  great  glory  among  the  ministers  to  be 
sent  to  Springfield.  But  I  was  not  pleased  with  my 
assignment.  I  felt  my  inability  to  perform  the  work. 
I  did  not  know  what  to  do.  I  simply  talked  to  the 
Lord  about  it,  however,  and  told  Him  that  unless  I  had 
help  I  was  going  to  run  away.  I  heard  a  voice  saying 
to  me  Tear  not,'  and  I  understood  it  perfectly.  Now  I 
am  coming  to  the  point  I  want  to  make  to  you.  I  was 
standing  at  the  parsonage  door  one  Sunday  morning,  a 
beautiful  morning  in  May,  when  a  little  boy  came  up  to 
me  and  said :  'Mr.  Lincoln  sent  me  around  to  see  if 
you  was  going  to  preach  today.'  Now,  I  had  met  ]\Ir. 
Lincoln,  but  I  never  thought  any  more  of  Abe  Lin- 
coln than  I  did  of  any  one  else.  I  said  to  the  boy : 
'You  go  back  and  tell  Mr.  Lincoln  that  if  he  will  come 
to  church  he  will  see  whether  I  am  going  to  preach 
or  not.'  The  little  fellow  stood  working  his  fingers 
and  finally  said :  'Mr.  Lincoln  told  me  he  would  give 
me  a  quarter  if  I  would  find  out  whether  you  are  going 
to  preach.'  I  did  not  want  to  rob  the  little  fellow  of  his 
income,  so  I  told  him  to  tell  Mr.  Lincoln  that  I  was 
going  to  try  to  preach.  I  was  always  ready  and  willing 
to  accept  any  assistance  that  came  along,  and  whenever 
a  preacher,  or  one  who  had  any  pretense  in  that  direc- 
tion, would  come  along  I  would  thrust  him  into  my 
pulpit  and  make  him  preach,  because  I  felt  that  any- 
body could  do  better  than  I  could. 

The  church  was  filled  that  morning.  It  was  a  good- 
sized  church,  but  on  that  day  all  the  seats  were  filled. 
I  had  chosen  for  my  text  the  words :  *Ye  nuist  be 
born  again,'  and  during  the  course  of  my  sermon  I  laid 
particular  stress  on  the  word  'must.'  Mr.  Lincoln 
came  into  the  church  after  the  services  had  commenced, 

Forty-five 


and  there  being  no  vacant  seats,  chairs  were  put  in  the 
altar  in  front  of  the  pulpit,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  and 
Governor  French  and  wife  sat  in  the  altar  during  the 
entire  services,  Mr.  Lincoln  on  my  left  and  Governor 
French  on  my  right,  and  I  noticed  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
appeared  to  be  deeply  interested  in  the  sermon.  A  few 
days  after  that  Sunday  Mr.  Lincoln  called  on  me  and 
informed  me  that  he  had  been  greatly  impressed  with 
my  remarks  on  Sunday  and  that  he  had  come  to  talk 
with  me  further  on  the  matter.  I  invited  him  in,  and 
my  wife  and  I  talked  and  prayed  with  him  for  hours. 
Now,  I  have  seen  many  persons  converted ;  I  have  seen 
hundreds  brought  to  Christ,  and  if  ever  a  person  was 
converted,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  converted  that  night 
in  my  house.  His  wife  was  a  Presbyterian,  but  from 
remarks  he  made  to  me  he  could  not  accept  Calvinism. 
He  never  joined  my  church,  but  I  will  always  believe 
that  since  that  night  Abraham  Lincoln  lived  and  died 
a  Christian  gentleman." 

Here  ends  the  narrative  of  Colonel  Jacquess.  Now 
compare  that  which  my  memory  preserved  for  the 
past  thirteen  years  and  the  Colonel's  own  printed  ac- 
count, and  the  discrepancies  are  small.  It  is  with 
pleasure  I  am  able  to  confirm  my  memory  by  the  words 
of  the  original  narrator.  It  is  with  no  small  degree  of 
pleasure  that  I  am  able  to  prove  that  Methodism  had  a 
hand  in  the  making  of  the  greatest  American.  Colonel 
James  F.  Jacquess  has  gone  to  his  reward,  but  it  is  his 
honor  to  have  been  used  by  his  Master  to  help  in  the 
spiritualization  of  the  great  man  who  piloted  our  na- 
tional destinies  in  a  time  of  exceeding  peril.  It  is  an 
honor  to  him,  and  through  him  to  the  denomination  of 
which  he  was  a  distinguished  member. 

Baltimore,  Md. 

(The  Christian  Advocate — November  11,  1909.) 

Forty-six 


Appendix  II 


PRECOCITY  OF  THE  BOY  LINCOLN. 
MANHOOD  RELIGION. 

The  fact  that  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincohi's 
mother  occurred  before  he  was  quite  ten  years  of  age 
has  apparently  led  certain  writers,  who  failed  to  ap- 
preciate the  precocity  of  the  child  and  boy,  to  refer 
to  his  manhood  memory  of  that  mother  and  of  that 
sad  event,  as  "but  a  tender  memory,"  and  thus  to 
ignore  or  minimize  the  influence  of  his  mother  upon 
his  character  or  speak  of  that  influence  as  compar- 
atively slight.  To  combat  such  views  as  entirely  er- 
roneous was  the  main  purpose  of  the  Open  Letter. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  in  the  now  glorified 
cabin  in  Kentucky,  February  12,  1809.  The  family 
removed  to  Indiana  in  the  fall  of  1816  or  1817,  when 
Abraham  was  JYz  or  8^^  years  old.  His  mother, 
Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln,  died  in  the  Indiana  cabin 
October  5,  1818,  when  Abraham  was  9  years,  7  months 
and  21  days  old.  How  much  would  an  average  boy 
of  that  age  remember  of  such  a  sad  event  in  his  life, 
and  how  much  of  the  loving  mother's  many  precepts 
and  teachings  would  be,  by  the  very  fact  of  that  death. 
that  sad  mysterious  leave-taking  in  the  lonely  wilder- 
ness, crystallized  and  fixed  for  ever  in  the  mind  and 
heart  of  the  average  boy? 

This  question  each  reader  can  answer  or  attempt 
to  answer  for  himself. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was,  however,  never  an  average 
child,  boy  or  man.  He  was  always  large  of  body,  and 
precocious  of  mind  and  heart.  When  scarcely  7  years 
of  age  he  was  larger  than  most  boys  of  14,  and  ac- 
quired his  height  of  6  feet  4  while  still  in  his  teens, 
and  as  said  by  his  boyhood  playmate  and  chum,  Austin 

Forty-seven 


Gollaher,  he  "was  smarter  than  many  older  people,  was 
always  doing  and  saying  something  that  astonished 
them,  his  solemn  wit  was  refreshing  to  those  who 
understood  it,  and  his  philosophy  and  wisdom  fre- 
quently beyond  belief."  "The  Boyhood  of  Abraham 
Lincoln/'  by  J.  Rogers  Gore. 

Quoting  again  from  Austin  Gollaher,  the  writer 
of  this  admirable  work,  on  page  21,  says — **Big,"  he 
said,  raising  his  hands  above  his  head,  "is  not  the 
right  word  to  describe  x^be  either  in  mind  or  body. 
I'll  tell  you  that  boy  towered !  He  was  nearly  a  head 
taller  than  I,  yet  I  was  three  years  older ;  and  when 
it  came  to  being  smart  he  was  way  yonder  ahead  of 
me.  God  did  it ;  God  made  him  big  in  body  and  mind 
so  that  he  could  work  hard  and  never  tire — so  that  he 
would  not  give  up  until  the  job  was  finished." 

On  page  114,  Mr.  Gollaher  is  reported  as  quoting 
from  John  Hodgen,  the  miller,  when  Abraham  was 
probably  between  6  and  /  years  of  age,  but  then  so 
large  and  strong  that  he  weekly  toted  the  family  corn 
to  the  mill  to  be  ground.  "Abraham's  mind  is  more 
than  usual,"  Mr.  Hodgen  would  say,  "it  is  so  full  of 
astonishing  things  that  at  times  it's  uncanny.  Why, 
I  would  rather  listen  to  him  talk  than  to  half  the  men 
in  the  settlement.  He  always  finds  something  new 
along  the  road  and  tells  me  about  it  every  time  he 
comes  to  the  mill." 

John,  the  miller,  presented  Abe  with  a  volume  of 
Aesop's  Fables,  which  his  mother,  Sarah  Hodgen. 
read  to  the  enrapt  boy  Abraham,  who  could  soon  re- 
peat many  of  them  word  for  word. 

Every  careful  writer  upon  the  life  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  testifies  to  his  early  and  insatiable  thirst  for 
knowledge,  his  serious,  solemn,  investigating  mind, 
and  serious  thought,  from  earliest  boyhood.     He  thus 

Forty-eight 


educated  himself. 

Charles  T.  White,  of  the  editorial  stafif  of  The 
New  York  Tribune,  a  lover  and  student  of  Lincoln- 
iana,  and  the  compiler  of  that  inimitable  book  "Lin- 
coln the  Comforter,"  writes — "Mr.  Gore's  book  throws 
a  veritable  flood  of  light  on  the  precocity  of  Lincoln 
for  the  year  or  two  before  he  left  Kentucky  for 
Southern  Indiana.  The  net  result  is  that  Lincoln  at 
6  or  7  had  a  highly  developed  spirituality,  as  highly 
developed,  I  should  say,  as  Whittier  or  Theodore 
Parker,  or  William  Cullen  Bryant,  and  much  the  same 
general  character  of  temperament.  Austin  Gollaher, 
in  Gore's  book,  says  that  he  was  the  size  and  had  the 
mental  capacity  of  a  lad  of  14.  As  he  didn't  get  it 
from  his  father,  who  was  just  'average,'  for  that 
period,  he  got  it  from  Nancy  Hanks,  who,  according 
to  Leland  and  Browne,  was  far,  far  above  the  average. 
Even  with  his  fine  start,  he  was  specially  raised  up  by 
God  to  save  civilization.  I  like  to  think  of  him  as  a 
great  gift  from  God.  There  is  nothing  in  history  to 
strengthen  faith  in  the  democracy  of  love  like  Lin- 
coln." 

Captain  Gilbert  J.  Greene,  from  whom  Mr.  White 
quotes  three  narratives  in  ^'Lincoln  the  Comforter/' 
was  a  close  friend  of  Lincoln,  was  the  recipient  of 
his  kindness  when  a  young  man  in  1850,  and  after- 
wards making  his  home  in  Springfield  he  became  a 
close  personal  friend  of  Lincoln,  and  after  the  assas- 
sination related  the  three  incidents  which  Mr.  WHiite 
has  preserved  in  his  booklet ;  the  one  presents  a  vivid 
picture  of  the  lawyer  and  young  printer  at  the  bedside 
of  a  dying  woman,  in  a  farm  house  near  Springfield. 
A  Will  had  been  prepared  and  executed.  The  lawyer 
has  said  some  words  of  comfort  to  the  dying  woman, 
and  she  asks  him  to  read  her  a  few  verses  out  of  the 
Bible.    Without  opening  the  book  that  was  handed  to 

Forty-nine 


him,  he  impressively  repeated  from  memory  the 
Twenty-third  Psahn,  and  the  first  part  of  the  14th 
Chapter  of  John,  and  as  her  face  ht  up  with  joy  and 
her  spirit  was  about  to  take  its  flight,  he  recited  with 
a  tenderness  and  pathos  that  enthralled  everyone  in  the 
room  the  "Rock  of  Ages,"  as  she  peacefully  fell  on 
sleep.  As  the  two  journeyed  back  to  Springfield, 
Lincoln  after  a  long  silence  solemnly  said  to  his  young 
companion — "God  and  Eternity  and  Heaven  were  very 
near  to  me  today." 

The  narrative  entitled  ''Lincoln  s  First  Pet,"  relates  a 
walk  and  talk  by  the  two  in  the  late  "fifties,"  when 
Greene  was  a  journeyman  printer  in  Springfield,  and 
when  the  fame  of  Lincoln  throughout  the  State  was 
steadily  rising. 

When  seeing  a  family  of  little  pigs,  Lincoln  re- 
marked, "I  never  see  a  pig  that  I  do  not  think  of  my 
first  pet  when  a  boy  of  six  years  old,  while  we  lived 
near  Hodgenville,  Kentucky."  He  went  over  to  a 
neighboring  farm  and  there  was  given  to  him  a  little 
pig  just  born,  which  he  carried  home,  and  he  then 
relates  how  he  trained  it,  how  it  followed  him  about 
through  the  woods,  and  grew  and  grew,  and  how  final- 
ly it  became  a  great  porker,  on  whose  back  he  rode, 
and  soon  there  came  a  day  of  tragedy,  how  he  tried 
to  save  his  pet,  then  a  great  hog,  and  when  he  knew 
"there  was  no  hope  for  my  pig,  I  did  not  eat  any 
breakfast,  but  started  for  the  woods.  I  had  not  got- 
ten very  far  into  the  woods  before  I  heard  the  pig 
squeal,  and  ran  faster  than  ever  to  get  away  from  the 
sound."  "They  could  not  get  me  to  take  any  of  the 
meat,  neither  tenderloin  nor  sausage  nor  souse,  and 
even  months  after,  when  the  cured  ham  came  on  the 
table,  it  made  me  sad  and  sick  to  look  at  it."  "To  this 
day,  whenever  I  see  a  pig  like  the  little  fellows  we 

Fifty 


have  just  met  in  the  woods,  it  all  comes  back  to  me, 
my  pet  pig.  our  rambles  in  the  woods,  the  scenes  of 
my  boyhood,  the  old  home,  and  the  dear  ones  there." 

This  boy  of  6  was  the  father  of  the  man  who,  when 
riding  with  a  group  of  lawyers  upon  the  Circuit, 
could  not  pass  the  little  bird  that  had  fallen  from  the 
mother's  nest,  but  braving  the  jeers  of  his  companions, 
rode  back,  picked  up  the  little  fledgling,  and  carefully 
put  it  back  in  the  nest ;  and  who,  on  another  occasion, 
requested  the  stage  in  which  he  was  riding  to  stop 
and  wait  while  he  got  out  and  assisted  a  little  pig  out 
of  the  mire  by  the  roadside,  and  of  the  same  man 
who  endorsed  the  report  of  many  a  court  martial  of  a 
delinquent  soldier  substantially,  "It  seems  to  me  that 
this  boy  will  do  us  more  good  above  ground  than  be- 
low.    Let  him  return  to  his  regiment.     A.  Lincoln." 

That  Lincoln  was  able  to  educate  himself  in  spite 
of  his  surroundings,  so  that  his  speeches  and  writings 
were  declared  by  experts  to  belong  to  the  fine  art  of 
English  prose,  and  to  the  best  in  literature,  has  always 
been  the  wonder  of  all  students.  Lincoln  himself  has 
not  left  in  doubt  the  question  as  to  7i'hen  that  education 
began.  In  his  conversation  with  Rev.  Air.  Gulliver, 
as  given  on  page  65  of  "Abraham  Lincoln,  Illustrated/' 
in  answer  to  the  question,  ''What  has  your  education 
been?"  Mr.  Lincoln  replied:  ''Well,  as  to  education, 
the  newspapers  are  correct.  I  never  went  to  school 
more  than  six  months  in  my  life.  I  can  say  this, — 
that,  among  my  earliest  recollections,  I  remember  how, 
zvhen  a  mere  child.  I  used  to  get  irritated  when  any- 
body talked  to  me  in  a  way  I  could  not  understand.  I 
don't  think  I  ever  got  so  angry  at  anything  else  in  my 
life;  but  that  always  disturbed  my  temper,  and  has 
ever  since.  I  can  remember  going  to  my  little  bedroom, 
after  hearing  the  neighbors  talk  of  an  evening  with 

Fifty-one 


my  father,  and  spending  no  small  part  of  the  night 
walking  up  and  down,  and  trying  to  make  out  what 
was  the  exact  meaning  of  some  of  their,  to  me,  dark 
sayings. 

I  could  not  sleep,  although  I  often  tried  to,  when 
I  got  on  such  a  hunt  after  an  idea,  until  I  had  caught 
it ;  and,  when  I  thought  I  had  got  it,  I  was  not  satis- 
fied until  I  had  repeated  it  over  and  over ;  until  I  had 
put  it  in  language  plain  enough,  as  I  thought,  for  any 
boy  I  knew  to  comprehend.  This  was  kind  of  passion 
with  me,  and  it  has  stuck  by  me ;  for  I  am  never  easy 
now,  when  I  am  handling  a  thought,  till  I  have  bounded 
it  north,  and  bounded  it  south,  and  bounded  it  east, 
and  bounded  it  west." 

We  must  repeat  that  with  the  evidence  of  the  re- 
markable precocity  of  the  child  and  boy  who  received 
the  tender  loving  care  and  solicitous  training  of  a 
Christian  mother  constantly  during  the  first  9^  years 
of  his  life,  the  character,  religion  and  influence  of 
that  mother  can  not  be  ignored  in  any  proper  "Story 
of  Lincoln's  Spiritual  Life  and  Convictions." 

MANHOOD  RELIGION. 

Mr.  Herndon,  in  his  address  in  Springfield,  De- 
cember 12,  1865,  said  of  Mr.  Lincoln — 

''Honesty  was  his  great  polar  star." 

*'He  loved  and  idolized  truth  for  its  own  sake." 

Dr.  Holland  says  that  the  truthfulness  and  earnest- 
ness of  his  mature  character  was  but  being  true  to  his 
Mother. 

That  in  his  manhood  religion  he  was  true  to  his 
mother's  faith  and  teaching,  stands  proven.  Her 
prayers  *'have  clung  to  me  all  my  life." 

Fifty-two 


"The  good  thought  that  our  God  is  a  prayer-hearing 
God,  sown  into  my  young  heart  by  my  dear  mother's 
hand,  was  in  my  mind  when  I  said  to  you  *Go  and 
pray,  for  God  alone  can  save  you'." 

"All  that  I  am  or  hope  to  be  I  owe  to  my  angel 
mother." 

With  Lincoln's  honesty  admitted,  and  abundantly 
proven,  as  it  is,  the  genuineness,  depth  and  sincerity 
of  his  manhood  religion  is  overwhelmingly  proven  by 
his  own  writings  and  speeches. 

In  addition  to  these  honest,  sincere  expressions  of 
his  mind  and  heart,  we  have  at  least  four  striking 
scenes,  each  witnessed  by  or  personally  reported  to  a 
mature  credible  witness,  each  portraying  clearly  and 
with  no  dim  or  uncertain  line  the  portrait  of  a  twice 
born  man :  one  in  the  late  40's,  in  the  Methodist  parson- 
age in  Springfield,  witnessed  and  reported  by  Col. 
Jaquess ;  one  at  the  bedside  in  the  farm  house  in  the 
50's,  witnessed  and  reported  by  Captain  Greene;  one 
in  that  locked  room  in  the  White  House  during  the 
progress  of  the  Battle  of  Gettysburg,  when  upon  his 
knees  as  a  second  Tishbite,  he  "touched  the  trailing 
garments  of  Power,"  and  heard  the  still  small  voice 
of  comfort,  telling  him  "things  would  go  all  right  at 
Gettysburg,"  related  to  and  reported  by  Generals 
Sickles  and  Rusling ;  and  the  other  the  remarkable 
Pisgah  interview  in  the  White  House  in  June,  1864, 
witnessed  and  reported  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Chiniquy. 

Moreover,  there  is  on  record  the  testimony  of  a 
veritable  cloud  of  unimpeachable  witnesses,  as  to 
serious  conversations  with  them,  showing  his  firm  re- 
ligious beliefs.  Among  them  are  Chittenden,  Wilson, 
Arnold,  Deming,  Munsell,  Speed,  Fessenden,  Whitney, 

Fifty-three 


Gilmore,  Chiniquy,  Gurley,  Smith,  Miner,  Sunderland, 
Brooks,  and  others.  What  other  eminent  lawyer 
and  politician,  not  accustomed  to  attend  "class"  reg- 
ularly, has  left  such  abundant  testimonies  of  his  re- 
ligious  experience? 

It  had  been  more  than  30  years  since  the  two  feeble 
attempts  to  question  the  firm  adherence  to  his  mother's 
faith  had  been  overwhelmed,  with  the  evidence  of  their 
falsity,  when  Dr.  Barton's  books  appeared. 

"Beating  the  air"  is  spectacular  self  exertion,  but 
when,  in  order  to  make  the  opportunity,  the  long  buried 
ashes  of  campaign  slanders  are  revamped  and  baseless 
false  charges  are  repeated,  and  when  out  of  print  re- 
printed in  detail,  for  the  purpose  of  argument,  how- 
ever brilliant,  true  lovers  of  Lincoln  are  liable  to  raise 
the  question  as  to  whether  a  worthy  service  has  been 
thereby  rendered  to  his  memory?  Good  taste,  of 
course,  is  another  question,  and  must  be  answered  in- 
dividually. 


Fifty-four 


Appendix  No.  Ill 


FATHER  CHINIQUY  AND  MR.  LINCOLN. 

Rev.  Charles  Chiniquy,  referred  to  and  quoted  in 
Dr.  Barton's  book  and  in  the  foregoing  Open  Letter, 
was  in  early  life  a  French  Roman  Catholic  Priest  in 
Montreal  and  Quebec,  who  earned  the  title  of  *'The 
Apostle  of  Temperance  of  Canada." 

In  1851  he  endorsed  a  project  of  establishing  a  col- 
ony of  French  speaking  Catholics  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley.  He  procured  transfer  to  the  Diocese  of  Chi- 
cago ;  secured  a  large  tract  of  land  in  Kankakee  Coun- 
ty in  Illinois  and  started  his  Mission  Colony. 

The  Colony  was  a  success,  but  after  over  500  fami- 
lies of  French  Catholics  had  settled  about  him,  op- 
position began  to  develop.  He  was  too  independent, 
and  persistent  attempts  to  drive  him  away,  or  destroy 
his  influence,  were  made.  His  chapel  was  burned  to 
the  ground,  but  his  people  were  loyal  to  him,  and  it  was 
rebuilt. 

Then  began  a  long  series  of  prosecutions  in  the 
Criminal  Courts.  He  was  twice  acquitted,  and  then 
upon  another  charge  a  change  of  venue  was  taken  and 
the  case  set  down  in  Urbana,  requiring  him  to  take  his 
witnesses  a  long  distance  at  great  expense. 

In  his  book — ''Fifty  Years  in  the  Church  of  Rome" 
— he  relates  how  he  became  acquainted  with  Abraham 
Lincoln.     A  man,  unknown  to  him,  met  him  at  the 

Fifty-five 


door  of  the  Court  House  at  Kankakee,  on  November 
13,  1855,  after  the  change  of  venue,  and  advised  him  to 
"try  to  secure  the  services  of  Abraham  Lincohi."  He 
repHed  that  he  had  two  kiwyers  now,  but  asked  "Who 
is  this  Abraham  Lincohi  ?  I  never  heard  of  that  man 
before."  The  reply  was,  "Abraham  Lincohi  is  the  best 
lawyer  and  the  most  honest  man  we  have  in  IlHnois." 

He  asked  his  lawyers,  Messrs.  Osgood  &  Padcock, 
if  they  would  have  any  objections  if  he  should  ask 
the  services  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  help  them  to  de- 
fend him  at  Urbana.  They  both  answered — "Oh,  if 
you  can  secure  the  services  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by 
all  means  do  it.  We  know  him  well ;  he  is  one  of  the 
best  lawyers  and  most  honest  men  we  have  in  our 
State." 

He  at  once  "telegraphed  to  Abraham  Lincoln  to  ask 
him  if  he  would  defend  my  honor  and  my  life,  (though 
I  was  a  stranger  to  him)  at  the  next  term  at  Urbana. 
About  twenty  minutes  later  I  received  the  answer. 
*Yes,  I  will  defend  your  honor  and  your  life  at  the  next 
term  at  Urbana.  Abraham  Lincoln.'  My  unknown 
friend  then  paid  the  operator,  pressed  my  hand,  and 
said,  'May  God  bless  and  help  you.  Father  Chiniquy. 
Continue  to  fight  fearlessly  for  truth  and  righteous- 
ness.' " 

At  the  trial  at  Urbana,  Lincoln  was  for  the  de- 
fense, and  it  was  after  the  first  day  of  that  trial  that 
Lincoln  said  to  Father  Chiniquy,  "The  only  way  to  be 
sure  of  a  favorable  verdict  tomorrow  is  that  Almighty 
God  will  take  our  part  and  show  your  innocence.  Go 
to  Him  and  pray,  for  He  alone  can  save  you,"  and 
Father  Chiniquy  adds — "From  11  P.  ]\L  to  3  in  the 
morning  I  cried  to  God  and  raised  my  supplicating 
hands  to  His  throne  of  mercy ;  but  I  confess  to  my  con- 

Fifty-six 


fusion,  it  seemed  to  me  in  certain  moments  that  it  was 
useless  to  pray  and  to  cry,  for  though  innocent,  I  was 
doomed  to  perish.  I  was  in  the  hands  of  my  enemies. 
My  God  had  forsaken  me. 

But  God  had  not  forsaken  me.  He  had  again 
heard  my  cry  and  was  once  more  to  show  me  His  in- 
finite mercy.  At  3  A.  M.  I  heard  three  knocks  on  my 
door,  and  I  quickly  went  to  open  it.  Who  was  there? 
Abraham  Lincoln,  with  a  face  beaming  with  joy. 

I  could  hardly  believe  my  eyes.  But  I  was  not 
mistaken.  It  was  my  noble-hearted  friend,  the  most 
honest  lawyer  of  Blinois,  one  of  the  noblest  men 
heaven  has  ever  given  to  earth.  It  was  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, who  had  been  given  me  as  my  Saviour." 

Mr.  Lincoln  told  him  tcf  cheer  up  ;  that  he  was  saved  ; 
that  the  Chicago  extras  that  night  at  the  close  of  the 
trial  had  announced  that  Father  Chiniquy  would  cer- 
tainly be  condemned  in  the  morning ;  and  that  one  of 
the  papers  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  friend  of  his, 
which  led  to  the  discovery  of  two  women  who  were 
present  and  overheard  the  complaining  witness  promise 
to  give  160  acres  of  land  to  his  sister  if  she  would  ac- 
cuse him  of  the  crime. 

As  one  of  the  women  was  ill,  this  friend  took  the 
other,  a  certain  Miss  MofTat,  and  by  the  first  train 
reached  Urbana  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  where 
they  found  Abraham  Lincoln  ready  to  hear  her  story ; 
and  then  hasten  to  cheer  up  his  client,  saying  "Their 
diabolical  plot  is  all  known,  and  if  they  do  not  fly  away 
before  dawn  of  day  they  will  surely  be  lynched.  Bless 
the  Lord,  yoh  are  saved." 

By  daylight  the  witnesses  of  the  prosecution  had 

Fifty-seven 


disappeared,  and  their  attorney,  appearing  before  the 
Court,  said  *Tiease  the  court,  allow  me  to  withdraw 
my  prosecution  against  Mr.  Chiniquy.  I  am  now  per- 
suaded that  he  is  not  guilty  of  the  faults  brought 
against  him  before  this  tribunal." 

''Abraham  Lincoln,  having  accepted  the  reparation 
of  my  name,  made  a  short  but  one  of  the  most  admir- 
able speeches  I  had  ever  heard." 

It  was  from  the  talk  of  Mr.  Lincoln  with  Father 
Chiniquy,  in  the  morning,  that  the  statement  as  to  his 
mother's  teachings  of  faith  and  prayer  occurred  which 
was  quoted  on  page  15  of  the  Open  Letter. 

If  ever  a  client  loved  and  venerated  his  attorney, 
Father  Chiniquy  did  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  when 
he  became  President  of  the  United  States,  this  former 
client  made  three  trips  from  Illinois  to  Washington  to 
see  his  former  attorney. 

(As  Rev.  Chiniquy 's  book  is  out  of  print  we  but 
follow  an  illustrious  example  in  giving  in  this  ap- 
pendix the  substance  of  the  remarkable  interview  of 
June,  1864.) 

His  first  visit  was  in  August,  1861,  when  he  be- 
lieved that  he  had  learned  of  a  plot  to  assassinate  Mr. 
Lincoln.  Lincoln  received  him  gladly,  heard  his  story, 
but  replied,  "Man  must  not  care  where  or  when  he  will 
die,  provided  he  dies  at  the  post  of  honor  and  duty," 
and  it  was  during  this  visit  that  Father  Chiniquy  re- 
ports that  Lincoln  offered  him  an  honorable  position 
with  the  United  States  Embassy  in  France,  but  he  had 
replied  that  his  conscience  told  him  that  he  could  not 
give  up  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  to  his  poor  French- 
Canadian  countrymen. 

"The  President  became  very  solemn,  and  replied, 
'You  are  right ;  you  are  right.     There  is  nothing  so 

Fifty-eiffht 


great  under  Heaven    as    to    be    the  Ambassador  of 
Christ'." 

His  second  trip  to  Washington  was  in  June,  1862, 
merely  to  congratulate  his  friend  and  former  attorney 
upon  the  victory  of  the  Monitor  over  the  Merrimac, 
and  the  conquest  of  New  Orleans,  and  he  says  "I 
wanted  to  unite  my  feeble  voice  with  that  of  the  whole 
country  to  tell  him  how  I  blessed  God  for  that  glorious 


success." 


((' 


'The  third  and  last  time  I  went  to  pay  my  re- 
spects to  the  doomed  President,  and  to  warn  him 
against  the  impending  dangers  which  I  knew  were 
threatening  him,  was  on  the  morning  of  June  8,  1864, 
when  he  was  absolutely  besieged  by  people  who  wanted 
to  see  him.  After  a  kind  and  warm  shaking  of  hands, 
he  said : 

"I  am  much  pleased  to  see  you  again.  But  it  is  im- 
possible, today,  to  say  anything  more  than  this.  To- 
morrow afternoon,  I  will  receive  the  delegation  of  the 
deputies  of  all  the  loyal  States,  sent  to  officially  an- 
nounce the  desire  of  the  country  that  I  should  remain 
the  President  four  years  more.  I  invite  you  to  be 
present  with  them  at  that  interesting  meeting.  You 
wnll  see  some  of  the  most  prominent  men  of  our  Re- 
public, and  I  will  be  glad  to  introduce  you  to  them. 
You  will  not  present  yourself  as  a  delegate  of  the  peo- 
ple, but  only  as  the  guest  of  the  President;  and  that 
there  may  be  no  trouble,  I  will  give  you  this  card, 
with  a  permit  to  enter  with  the  delegation.  P)Ut  do  not 
leave  Washington  before  I  see  you  again  ;  I  have  some 
important  matters  on  which  I  want  to  know  your 
mind." 

The  next  day  it  was  my  privilege  to  have  the  great- 
est honor  ever  received  by  me.  The  good  President 
wanted  me  to  stand  at  his  right  hand,  when  he  received 

Fifty-nine 


the  delegation,  and  hear  the  address  presented  by 
Governor  Dennison,  the  President  of  the  convention, 
to  which  he  rephed  in  his  own  admirable  simplicity 
and  eloquence ;  finishing  by  one  of  his  most  witty 
anecdotes,  "I  am  reminded  in  this  connection  of  a  story 
of  an  old  Dutch  farmer,  who  remarked  to  a  companion, 
wisely,  'that  it  was  not  best  to  swap  horses  when  cross- 
ing a  stream'." 

The  next  day  he  kindly  took  me  with  him  in  his  car- 
riage, when  visiting  the  30,000  wounded  soldiers  picked 
up  on  the  battlefields  of  the  seven  days'  battle  of  the 
Wilderness,  and  the  thirty  days'  battle  around  Rich- 
mond, where  Grant  was  just  breaking  the  backbone  of 
the  rebellion.  On  the  way  to  and  from  the  hospitals, 
I  could  not  talk  much.  The  noise  of  the  carriage  rap- 
idly drawn  on  the  pavement  was  too  great.  Besides 
that,  my  soul  was  so  much  distressed,  and  my  heart  so 
much  broken  by  the  sight  of  the  horrors  of  that  frac- 
ticidal  war,  that  my  voice  was  as  stifled."     *  *  * 

*'He  invited  me  to  go  with  him  to  his  study,  and 
said : 

"Though  I  am  very  busy,  I  must  rest  an  hour  with 
you.  I  am  in  need  of  that  rest.  My  head  is  aching,  I 
feel  as  crushed  under  the  burden  of  affairs  which  are 
on  my  shoulders.  There  are  many  important  things 
about  the  plots  of  the  Jesuits  that  I  can  learn  only  from 
you.  Please  wait  just  a  moment,  I  have  just  received 
some  dispatches  from  General  Grant,  to  which  I  must 
give  an  answer.  My  secretary  is  waiting  for  me.  I 
go  to  him.  Please  amuse  yourself  with  those  books 
during  my  short  absence." 

Twenty-five  minutes  later  the  President  had  re- 
turned with  his  face  flushed  with  joy. 

''Glorious  news !  General  Grant  has  again  beaten 
Lee,  and   forced  him  to   retreat   towards   Richmond, 

Sixty 


where  he  will  have  to  surrender  before  long.  Grant 
is  a  real  hero.  But  let  us  come  to  the  question  I  want 
to  put  to  you.  Have  you  read  the  letter  of  the  Pope 
to  Jeff  Davis,  and  what  do  you  think  of  it?" 

Then  Father  Chiniquy  very  earnestly  set  forth  his 
fears  of  conspiracy  to  assassinate  the  President,  and 
continues  : 

"The  President  listened  to  my  words  with  breath- 
less attention.    He  replied :     *  *  * 

"  'You  are  not  the  first  to  warn  me  against  the  dan- 
gers of  assassination.  My  ambassadors  in  Italy, 
France  and  England,  as  well  as  Professor  Morse,  have, 
many  times,  warned  me  against  the  plots  of  the  mur- 
derers whom  they  have  detected  in  those  different 
countries.  But  I  see  no  other  safeguard  against  those 
murderers,  but  to  be  always  ready  to  die,  as  Christ 
advises  it.  As  we  must  all  die  sooner  or  later,  it  makes 
very  little  difference  to  me  whether  I  die  from  a  dagger 
plunged  through  the  heart  or  from  an  inflammation  of 
the  lungs.  Let  me  tell  you  that  I  have,  lately,  read  a 
passage  in  the  Old  Testament  which  has  made  a  pro- 
found, and.  I  hope,  a  salutary  impression  on  me.  Here 
is  that  passage.' 

"The  President  took  his  Bible,  opened  it  at  the  third 
chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  and  read  from  the  22nd  to 
the  28th  verse. 

"  *22.  Ye  shall  not  fear  them ;  for  the  Lord  your 
God  shall  fight  for  you. 

"  *23.  And  T  besought  the  Lord  at  that  time,  say- 
ing: 

"  '24.  O  Lord  God,  thou  hast  begun  to  show  thy 
servant  thy  greatness,  and  thy  mighty  hand  ;  for  what 
God  is  there,  in  heaven  or  in  earth,  that  can  do  ac- 
cording to  thy  words,  and  according  to  thy  might ! 

"  '25.     I  pray  thee,  let  me  go  over  and  see  the  good 

Sixty-one 


land  that  is  beyond  Jordan,  that  goodly  mountain,  and 
Lebanon. 

*'  *26.  But  God  was  wroth  with  me  for  your  sakes, 
and  would  not  hear  me :  and  the  Lord  said  unto  me, 
let  it  suffice  thee :  speak  no  more  unto  me  of  this  mat- 
ter: 

"  *27.  Get  thee  up  unto  the  top  of  Pisgah,  and  lift 
up  thine  eyes  westward  and  northward,  and  south- 
ward and  eastward,  and  behold  it  with  thine  eyes :  for 
thou  shalt  not  go  over  this  Jordan'." 

After  the   President   had   read   these   words   with 

great  solemnity,  he  added : 

''My  Dear  Father  Chiniquy,  let  me  tell  you  that  I 
have  read  these  strange  and  beautiful  words  several 
times,  these  last  five  or  six  weeks.  The  more  I  read 
them  the  more  it  seems  to  me  that  God  had  written 
them  for  me  as  well  as  for  IMoses. 

"Has  he  not  taken  me  from  my  poor  log  cabin 
by  the  hand,  as  he  did  Moses  in  the  reeds  of  the 
Nile,  to  put  me  at  the  head  of  the  greatest  and  the 
most  blessed  of  modern  nations,  just  as  he  put  that 
prophet  at  the  head  of  the  most  blessed  nation  of 
ancient  times?  Has  not  God  granted  me  a  privilege, 
which  was  not  granted  to  any  living  man,  when  I  broke 
the  fetters  of  4,000,000  of  men,  and  made  them  free? 
Has  not  our  God  given  me  the  most  glorious  victories 
over  our  enemies?  Are  not  the  armies  of  the  Con- 
federacy so  reduced  to  a  handful  of  men,  when  com- 
pared to  what  they  were  two  years  ago ;  that  the  day 
is  fast  approaching  when  they  will  have  to  surrender. 

"Now,  I  see  the  end  of  this  terrible  conflict,  with 
the  same  joy  of  ]\Ioses,  when  at  the  end  of  his  trying 
forty  years  in  the  wilderness ;  and  I  pray  my  God  to 
grant  me  to  see  the  days  of  peace  and  untold  pros- 
perity, which   will   follow   this  cruel   war,   as   Moses 

Sixty-two 


asked  God  to  see  the  other  side  of  Jordan  and  enter 
the  Promised  Land.  But,  do  you  know  that  I  hear  in 
my  soul,  as  the  voice  of  God,  giving  me  the  rebuke 
which  was  given  to  Moses? 

"Yes !  every  time  that  my  soul  goes  to  God  to  ask 
the  favor  of  seeing  the  other  side  of  Jordan,  and  eat- 
ing the  fruits  of  that  peace,  after  which  I  am  longing 
with  such  an  unspeakable  desire,  do  you  know  that 
there  is  a  still  but  solemn  voice,  which  tells  me  that  I 
will  see  those  things  only  from  a  long  distance,  and 
that  I  will  be  among  the  dead,  when  the  nation,  which 
God  granted  me  to  lead  through  those  awful  trials,  will 
cross  the  Jordan,  and  dwell  in  that  Land  of  Promise, 
where  peace,  industry,  happiness  and  liberty  will  make 
everyone  happy,  and  why  so  ?  Because  he  has  already 
given  me  favors  which  he  never  gave,  I  dare  say,  to 
any  man  in  these  latter  days. 

"Why  did  God  Almighty  refuse  to  Moses  the  favor 
of  crossing  the  Jordan,  and  entering  the  Promised 
Land.  It  was  on  account  of  his  own  nation's  sins ! 
That  law  of  divine  retribution  and  justice,  by  which 
one  must  sufifer  for  another,  is  surely  a  terrible 
mystery.  But  it  .is  a  fact  which  no  man  who  has  any 
intelligence  and  knowledge  can  deny.  Moses,  who 
knew  that  law,  though  he  probably  did  not  understand 
it  better  than  we  do,  calmly  says  to  his  people :  *God 
was  wroth  with  me  for  your  sakes.' 

"But,  though  we  do  not  understand  that  mysterious 
and  terrible  law,  we  find  it  written  in  letters  of  tears 
and  blood  wherever  we  go.  We  do  not  read  a  single 
page  of  history,  without  finding  undeniable  traces  of 
its  existence. 

"Where  is  the  mother  who  has  not  shed  tears  and 
suffered  real  tortures,  for  her  children's  sake? 

"Who  is  the  good  king,  the  worthy  emperor,  the 

Sixty-three 


gifted  chieftain,  who  have  not  suffered  unspeakable 
mental  agonies,  or  even  death,  for  their  people's  sake? 
"Is  not  our  Christian  religion  the  highest  ex- 
pression of  the  wisdom,  mercy  and  love  of  God !  But 
what  is  Christianity  if  not  the  very  incarnation  of  that 
eternal  law  of  divine  justice  in  our  humanity? 

"When  I  look  on  Moses,  alone,  silently  dying  on 
the  Mount  Pisgah,  I  see  that  law,  in  one  of  its  most 
sublime  human  manifestations,  and  I  am  filled  with 
admiration  and  awe. 

"But  when  I  consider  that  law  of  justice,  and  ex- 
piation in  the  death  of  the  Just,  the  divine  Son  of 
Mary,  on  the  mountain  of  Calvary,  I  remain  mute  in 
my  adoration.  The  spectacle  of  the  crucified  one  which 
is  before  my  eyes,  is  more  than  sublime,  it  is  divine ! 
Moses  died  for  his  people's  sake,  but  Christ  died  for 
the  whole  world's  sake !  Both  died  to  fulfill  the  same 
eternal  law  of  the  divine  justice,  though  in  a  different 
measure. 

"Now,  would  it  not  be  the  greatest  of  honors  and 
privileges  bestowed  upon  me,  if  God,  in  his  infinite 
love,  mercy  and  wisdom,  would  put  me  between  his 
faithful  servant,  ]\Ioses,  and  his  eternal  Son,  Jesus, 
that  I  might  die  as  they  did,  for  my  nation's  sake ! 

"My  God  alone  knows  what  I  have  already  suf- 
fered for  my  dear  country's  sake.  But  my  fear  is 
that  the  justice  of  God  is  not  yet  paid:  When  I  look 
upon  the  rivers  of  tears  and  blood  drawn  by  the  lashes 
of  the  merciless  masters  from  the  veins  of  the  very 
heart  of  those  millions  of  defenceless  slaves,  these  two 
hundred  years :  When  I  remember  the  agonies,  the 
cries,  the  unspeakable  tortures  of  those  unfortunate 
people  to  which  I  have,  to  some  extent,  connived  with 
so  many  others,  a  part  of  my  life,  I  fear  that  we  are 

Sixty-four 


still  far  from  the  complete  expiation.  For  the  judg- 
ments of  God  are  true  and  righteous."     *  *  * 

*'But  just  as  the  Lord  heard  no  murmur  from  the 
lips  of  Moses,  when  he  told  him  that  he  had  to  die, 
before  crossing  the  Jordan,  for  the  sins  of  his  people, 
so  I  hope  and  pray  that  he  will  hear  no  murmur  from 
me  when  I  fall  for  my  nation's  sake. 

'The  only  two  favors  I  ask  of  the  Lord,  are,  first, 
that  I  may  die  for  the  sacred  cause  in  which  I  am  en- 
gaged, and  when  I  am  the  standard-bearer  of  the 
rights  and  liberties  of  my  country. 

"The  second  favor  I  ask  from  God,  is  that  my  dear 
son,  Robert,  when  I  am  gone,  will  be  one  of  those  who 
lift  up  that  flag  of  Liberty  which  will  cover  my  tomb, 
and  carry  it  with  honor  and  fidelity,  to  the  end  of  his 
life,  as  his  father  did,  surrounded  by  the  millions  who 
will  be  called  with  him  to  fight  and  die  for  the  defence 
and  honor  of  our  country." 

Never  had  I  heard  such  sublime  words.  Never  had 
I  seen  a  human  face  so  solemn  and  so  prophet-like 
as  the  face  of  the  President,  when  uttering  these 
things.  Every  sentence  had  come  to  me  as  a  hymn 
from  heaven,  reverberated  by  the  echoes  of  the  moun- 
tains of  Pisgah  and  Calvary.  I  was  beside  myself. 
Bathed  in  tears,  I  tried  to  say  something,  but  I  could 
not  utter  a  word. 

I  knew  the  hour  to  leave  had  come,  I  asked  from 
the  President  permission  to  fall  on  my  knees,  and  pray 
with  him  that  his  life  might  be  spared ;  and  he  knelt 
with  me.  But  I  prayed  more  with  my  tears  and  sobs 
than  with  my  words. 

Then  I  pressed  his  hand  on  my  lips  and  bathed  it 
with  my  tears,  and  with  a  heart  filled  with  an  unspeak- 
able desolation.  I  bade  him  Adieu !  It  was  for  the 
last  time !" 

Sixtv-five 


Appendix  IV. 


LINCOLN'S  ENDORSEMENT  OF  COLONEL 

JAQUESS. 

J.  R.  Gilmore,  in  the  article,  ''A  Suppressed  Chapter 
of  History/'  published  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  of 
April,  1887,  page  435,  under  his  usual  pen  name, 
Edmund  Kirke;  reports  a  conference  with  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, in  connection  with  Colonel  Jaquess'  first  appli- 
cation for  a  furlough  and  permission  to  go  single- 
handed  into  the  rebel  lines  and  advocate  peace. 

From  8:00  o'clock  until  after  midnight,  Mr.  Gil- 
more  discussed  the  questions  involved.  He  had  come 
from  General  Rosecrans  headquarters  in  Tennessee, 
with  letters  from  both  General  Rosecrans  and  Colonel 
Jaquess,  and  Mr.  Gilmore  asked  Lincoln  to  give  Col- 
onel Jaquess  some  manner  of  official  standing,  if  the 
mission  was  to  be  undertaken. 

This  Lincoln  said  he  could  not  do;  that  while  he 
was  anxious  that  the  trip  should  be  made,  he  could 
not  acknowledge  the  rebel  government,  etc.,  and  in 
this  talk,  as  reported  by  Mr.  Gilmore,  President  Lin- 
coln not  only  gave  a  most  wonderful  endorsement  of 
the  character  of  Colonel  Jaquess,  but  disclosed  his  own 
personal  firm  belief  in  an  over-ruling,  guiding  Prov- 
idence, the  responsibility  of  mankind,  and  the  infallible 
righteousness  of  the  judgments  of  the  Lord,  which 
beliefs  were  afterwards  enshrined  in  that  classic,  "The 
Second  Inaugural." 

(As  Dr.  Barton  failed  to  include  any  item  of  this 
interview  in  his  book  which  he  alleged  to  set  forth  in 

Sixty-six 


their  full  essential  content,  "all  the  available  evidence 
concerning  the  religious  faith  of  Abraham  Lincoln" 
we  have  no  apology  for  including  this  as  an  appendix.) 

In  reply  to  Mr.  Gilmore's  urgings,  Mr.  Lincoln  said 
that  the  reasons  that  he  could  not  endorse  Colonel 
Jaquess'  undertaking  officially  was  not  only  that  it 
might  be  construed  into  a  (7?fa.?/-acknowledgment  of  the 
rebel  government,  but 

"Partly  its  effect  on  the  North.  The  Copperheads 
would  be  sure  to  say  I  had  shown  the  white  feather, 
and  resorted  to  back-door  diplomacy  to  get  out  of  a 
bad  scrape.  This,  whether  true  or  not,  would  dis- 
courage loyal  people.  You  see,  I  don't  want  to  be  like 
the  dog  that  crossed  the  brook  with  a  piece  of  meat  in 
his  mouth,  and  dropped  it  to  catch  its  enlarged  shadow 
in  the  water.  I  want  peace ;  I  want  to  stop  this  ter- 
rible waste  of  life  and  property;  and  I  knozv  Jaquess 
well,  and  see  that,  working  in  the  way  he  proposes,  he 
may  be  able  to  bring  influences  to  bear  upon  Davis  that 
he  cannot  well  resist,  and  thus  pave  the  way  for  an 
honorable  settlement ;  but  T  can't  afford  to  discourage 
our  friends  and  encourage  our  enemies,  and  so,  per- 
haps, make  it  more  difficult  to  save  the  Union." 

*T  appreciate  your  position,  sir,"  I  said;  "but  what 
weight  will  Jaquess  have,  if  he  goes  without  some,  at 
least  implied,  authority  from  you?" 

"He  may  have  much,"  he  replied,  drawing  from  his 
side  pocket  the  letter  to  him  from  Jaquess,  and  glanc- 
ing over  it.  "He  proposes  here  to  speak  to  them  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  he  says  he  feels  God's  hand 
is  in  it,  and  He  has  laid  the  duty  upon  him.  Now,  if 
he  feels  that  he  has  that  kind  of  authority,  he  can't  fail 
to  affect  the  element  on  which  he  expects  to  operate, 

Sixty-seven 


and  that  Methodist  element  is  very  powerful  at  the 
South." 

"Why  sir !"  I  remarked.  "I  hesitated  about  deliver- 
ing you  that  letter.  I  feared  you  would  think  Jaquess 
fanatical." 

"If  you  had  not  delivered  it,"  he  answered,  "I 
would  not  let  him  go.  Such  talk  in  you  or  me  might 
sound  fanatical ;  but  in  Jaquess  it  is  simply  natural 
and  sincere.  And  I  am  not  at  all  sure  he  isn't  right. 
God  selects  his  own  instruments,  and  sometimes  they 
are  queer  ones ;  for  instance.  He  chose  me  to  steer  the 
ship  through  a  great  crisis." 

I  was  glad  to  see  him  relapsing  into  his  usual 
badinage,  but,  desiring  to  keep  him  to  the  subject,  I 
said :  "Then,  sir,  you  decide  to  give  Jaquess  the  fur- 
lough, but  refuse  to  grant  him  an  interview.  He  will 
need  to  know  your  views  about  peace.  What  shall  I 
write  him  are  the  terms  you  will  grant  the  Rebels?" 

"Don't  write  him  at  all — write  to  Rosecrans.  I've 
been  thinking  what  had  better  be  said.  My  views  are 
peace  on  any  terms  consistent  with  the  abolition  of 
slavery  and  the  restoration  of  the  Union.  Is  not  that 
enough  to  say  to  Jaquess?  He  can  do  no  more  than 
open  the  door  for  further  negotiations,  which  would 
have  to  be  conducted  with  me  here,  in  a  regular  way. 
Let  Rosecrans  tell  him  that  we  shall  be  liberal  on  col- 
lateral points ;  that  the  country  will  do  everything  for 
safety,  nothing  for  revenge." 

"Do  you  mean,  sir,"  I  asked,  "that  as  soon  as  the 
Rebels  lay  down  their  arms  you  will  grant  a  general 
amnesty  ?" 

"I  do ;  and  I  will  say  to  you  that,  individually,  I 
should  be  disposed  to  make  compensation  for  the 
slaves ;  but  I  doubt  if  my  cabinet  or  the  country  would 
favor  that.    What  do  you  think  public  opinion  would 

Sixty-eight 


be  about  it?  Nicolay  tells  me  you  have  recently  lec- 
tured all  over  the  North ;  you  must  have  heard  people 
talk." 

"I  have,  sir,  almost  everywhere ;  and  my  opinion  is 
that  not  one  voter  in  ten  would  pay  the  South  a  dollar. 
Still,  I  have  observed  very  little  hatred  or  bitterness 
in  any  quarter." 

"No,"  he  answered,  ''the  feeling  is  against  slavery, 
not  against  the  South.  The  war  has  educated  our  peo- 
|)le  into  abolition,  and  they  now  deny  that  slaves  can 
be  property.  But  there  are  two  sides  to  that  question : 
one  is  ours,  the  other  the  Southern  side ;  and  those  peo- 
ple are  just  as  honest  and  conscientious  in  their  opinion 
as  we  are  in  ours.  They  think  they  have  a  moral  and 
legal  right  to  their  slaves,  and  until  very  recently  the 
North  has  been  of  the  same  opinion ;  for  two  hundred 
years  the  whole  country  has  admitted  it,  and  regarded 
and  treated  the  slaves  as  property.  Now,  does  the 
mere  fact  that  the  country  has  come  suddenly  to  a  con- 
trary opinion  give  it  the  right  to  take  the  slaves  from 
their  owners  without  compensation?  The  blacks  must 
be  freed.  Slavery  is  the  bone  we  are  fighting  over.  It 
must  be  got  out  of  the  way,  to  give  us  permanent 
peace ;  and  if  we  have  to  fight  this  war  till  the  South  is 
subjugated,  then  I  think  we  shall  be  justified  in  freeing 
the  slaves  without  compensation.  But  in  any  settle- 
ment arrived  at  before  they  force  things  to  that  ex- 
tremity, is  it  not  right  and  fair  that  we  should  make 
payment  for  the  slaves?" 

"If  I  were  a  slaveholder,"  I  answered,  *T  should 
probably  say  that  it  was :  but  you,  sir,  have  to  deal 
with  things  as  they  are,  and  I  think  that  if  you  were 
to  sound  public  sentiment  at  the  North  you  would  find 
it  utterly  opposed  to  any  compromise  with  the  South. 

Sixty-nine 


A  vast  majority  would  regard  any  compensation  as  a 
price  paid  for  peace,  and  not  for  the  slaves." 

"So  I  think,"  he  said,  "and  therefore  I  fear  we  can 
come  to  no  adjustment.  "I  fear  the  war  must  go  on 
till  North  and  South  have  both  drunk  of  the  cup  to  the 
very  dregs, — till  both  have  worked  out  in  pain,  and 
grief,  and  bitter  humiliation  the  sin  of  two  hundred 
years.  It  has  seemed  to  me  that  God  so  wills  it ;  and 
the  first  gleam  I  have  had  of  a  hope  to  the  contrary 
is  in  this  letter  of  Jaquess.  This  thing,  irregular  as  it 
is,  may  mean  that  the  Higher  Powers  are  about  to  take 
a  hand  in  this  business,  and  bring  about  a  settlement. 
I  know  if  I  were  to  say  this  out  loud,  nine  men  in  ten 
would  think  I  had  gone  crazy.  But — you  are  a  think- 
ing man — just  consider  it.  Here  is  a  man,  cool,  delib- 
erate. God-fearing,  of  exceptional  sagacity  and  zvorldly 
wisdom,  who  undertakes  a  project  that  strikes  you  and 
me  as  utterly  chimerical :  he  attempts  to  bring  about, 
single-handed  and  on  his  own  hook,  a  peace  between 
two  great  sections.  Moreover,  he  gets  it  into  his  head 
that  God  has  laid  this  work  upon  him,  and  he  is  will- 
ing to  stake  his  life  upon  that  conviction.  The  im- 
pulse upon  him  is  overpowering,  as  it  was  upon  Luther, 
when  he  said,  'God  help  me.  I  can  do  no  otherwise.' 
Now,  how  do  you  account  for  this?  What  produces 
this  feeling  in  him?" 

"An  easy  answer  would  be  to  say  that  Jaquess  is  a 
fanatic." 

"But,"  he  replied,  "he  is  very  far  from  being  a 
fanatic.  He  is  remarkably  level-headed ;  I  never  kyiew 
a  man  more  so.  Can  you  account  for  it  except  on  his 
own  supposition,  that  God  is  in  it?  And,  if  that  is  so, 
something  will  come  out  of  it ;  perhaps  not  what 
Jaquess  expects,  but  what  will  be  of  service  to  the  right. 

Seventy 


So,  though  there  is  risk  about  it,  I  shall  let  him  go." 

"There  certainly,  sir,  is  risk  to  Jaquess.  He  will 
go  without  a  safe-conduct,  and  so  will  be  technically  a 
spy.  The  Rebel  leaders  may  choose  to  regard  him  in 
that  light.  If  they  don't  like  his  terms  of  peace,  they 
may  think  that  the  easiest  way  to  be  rid  of  the  sub- 
ject. In  that  event,  couldn't  you  in  some  way  inter- 
fere to  protect  him  ?" 

"I  don't  see  how  I  could,"  he  replied,  "without  ap- 
pearing to  have  a  hand  in  the  business.  And  if  Jaquess 
has  his  duties,  I  have  mine.  What  you  suggest  re- 
minds me  of  a  man  out  West,  who  was  not  over-pious, 
but  rich,  and  built  a  church  for  the  poor  people  of  his 
neighborhood.  When  the  church  was  finished,  the  peo- 
ple took  it  into  their  heads  that  it  needed  a  lightning- 
rod,  and  they  went  to  the  rich  man,  and  asked  him  for 
money  to  help  pay  for  it.  'Money  for  a  lightning-rod !' 
he  said.  'Not  a  red  cent!  If  the  Lord  wants  to  thunder 
down  his  own  house,  let  him  thunder  it  down,  and  be 
d d'." 

"So,"  I  said,  laughing,  "you  propose  to  let  the  Lord 
take  care  of  Jaquess  ?" 

"I  do,"  he  answered.  "His  evident  sincerity  will 
protect  him.  I  have  no  fear  for  him  whatever.  But  I 
shall  be  anxious  to  hear  of  him,  and  I  wish  you  would 
send  me  the  first  word  you  get.  In  writing  to  Rose- 
crans,  omit  what  I  have  said  about  paying  for  the 
slaves.  The  time  has  not  come  to  talk  about  that.  Let 
him  say  what  he  thinks  best  to  Colonel  Jaquess ;  but 
the  colonel  must  not  understand  he  has  the  terms  from 
me.  We  want  peace,  but  we  can  make  no  overtures  to 
the  Rebels.  They  already  know  that  the  country  would 
welcome  them  back,  and  treat  them  generously  and 
magnanimously." 

"To   avoid    any   possibility    of    misunderstanding, 

Seventy-one 


sir,"  I  remarked,  "would  it  not  be  well  for  you  to  write 
to  Rosecrans  also  ?" 

"Perhaps  it  would,"  he  answered.    "I  think  I  will." 

It  was  near  midnight  when  I  rose  to  go.  As  I  did 
so,  he  said,  "Don't  go  yet.  I  shall  stay  here  until  I 
get  something  from  Grant." 

I  resumed  my  seat,  and  half  an  hour  later  the  dis- 
patch came  in.  Then  the  worn,  weary  man  took  my 
hand,  saying,  "Good-bye.  God  bless  you,"  and  I  went 
to  my  quarters. 

Thus,  Col.  Jaquess,  single-handed  and  alone,  in  July, 
1863,  made  his  first  attempt  to  carry  out  his  mission 
of  peace.  Wearing  his  field  uniform  as  a  Colonel  in 
the  Union  Army,  he  boldly  walked  into  the  lines  of 
the  Confederate  forces,  was  courteously  treated  by  sol- 
diers and  officers,  including  General  Longstreet,  ex- 
horted the  southern  Methodists  who  hailed  him  as  an 
ambassador  of  God,  and  urged  him  strongly  not  to 
cease  his  efforts  until  the  end  was  accomplished ;  but 
Jefferson  Davis  denied  him  a  personal  interview  un- 
less he  could  speak  on  behalf  of  President  Lincoln,  so 
the  Colonel  returned  to  urge  the  President  to  permit 
him  to  use  his  name. 

From  Baltimore,  where  he  arrived  safely  without 
the  smell  of  fire  having  passed  upon  his  garments,  he 
sent  a  request  to  the  President  to  be  permitted  to  make 
a  report  in  person,  but  the  letter  was  not  delivered  to 
Lincoln,  for  which  afterwards  he  expressed  sincere 
regret. 

After  waiting  two  weeks  for  an  answer,  Col.  Jaquess 
hastened  to  his  post  of  duty  with  the  Army  on  the 
Tennessee,  and  soon  after  led  his  regiment  in  the  bat- 
tles about  Chattanooga,  but  he  never  for  a  moment 

Seventy-two 


forgot  or  abandoned  his  mission.  It  was  the  next  sum- 
mer, 1864,  that  he  renewed  his  request,  through  Mr. 
Gilmore,  and  to  which  we  referred  in  the  Open  Letter. 

It  was  then  in  July,  1864,  that  the  two,  Jaquess  and 
Gilmore,  successfully  passed  through  the  lines  to  Rich- 
mond, had  a  personal  interview  with  Davis  and 
Benjamin,  and  safely  returned  to  publish  Davis'  de- 
claration of — War  or  Disunion — which  dissolved  the 
peace  party  of  the  North,  and  triumphantly  re-elected 
Lincoln  president. 

Dr.  Chapman,  in  his  book — ''Latest  Light  on  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  and  War-Time  Memories" — devotes  the 
third  chapter,  of  57  pages,  to  "The  Jaquess-Gilmore 
Mission."  This  we  had  not  seen  when  writing  the 
Open  Letter,  but  had,  by  independent  research,  ob- 
tained the  facts  from  records  in  the  possession  of  Miss 
Fannie  M.  Jaquess,  the  niece  of  Col.  Jaquess. 

Dr.  Chapman,  who  had  a  long  personal  acquaintance 
with  both  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Dr.  Jaquess,  opens  his 
Chapter  as  follows : 

III. 

The  Jaquess-Gilmore  Mission. 

To  the  re-election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  Pres- 
ident, and  the  final  overthrow  of  the  Rebellion, 
the  Jaquess-Gilmore  Embassy  of  1863-64  con- 
tributed more  largely  than  did  any  other  single 
effort  of  individuals,  or  any  one  achievement  or 
act  of  the  Government  during  that  period. 

Having  been  an  active  jmrticipant  in  the  strug- 
gles of  that  Presidential  campaign  and  having 
given  the  history  of  that  mission  careful  considera- 
tion for  more  than  half  a  century,  I  have  no 
hesitation  in  saying  that  the  disclosures  secured  by 
that  embassy  and  widely  published  at  the  crisis 
hour  of  that  contest,  turned  the  tide  of  battle  and 

Seventy-three 


saved  the  nation  from  the  ruhious  defeat  of  Pres- 
ident Lincoln  and  the  dissolution  of  the  Union. 

The  story  of  that  unique  mission  and  of  its  de- 
cisive influence  in  the  Presidential  campaign  is 
here  told  with  painstaking  fidelity  and,  to  be  right- 
fully appreciated,  it  should  be  read  in  its  entirety. 
The  hero  of  that  embassy, 

Colonel  James  F.  Jaquess, 

of  the  73rd  Illinois  V'olunteers,  was  a  rare  man. 
He  lived  with  his  head  above  the  clouds  while  his 
feet  were  on  solid  ground ;  he  lived  in  the  eternal 
while  he  wrought  with  tremendous  force  in  the 
activities  of  earth.  He  was  a  prominent  minister 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  a  dis- 
tinguished college  president  before  the  Rebellion, 
and  in  the  pulpit  he  was  a  Boanerges,  a  "Son  of 
Thunder,"  and  his  gospel  messages  were  like  oral 
proclamations  by  Jehovah.  He  seemed  to  live  in 
constant  fellowship  with  the  Most  High,  and  to 
be  an  utter  stranger  to  worldly  considerations  and 
motives  while  obeying  the  commands  of  God.  He 
was  as  loving  and  gentle  as  a  devoted  mother  in 
dealing  with  the  weak  and  erring,  but  he  would 
dash  with  fearless  fury  into  battle  as  if  hurled  by 
an  invisible  catapult  against  the  forces  of  un- 
righteousness. To  him  the  entreaties  of  the  gos- 
pel, the  denunciations  of  the  law,  and  the  violence 
of  war,  were  alike  the  agencies  of  God  in  the 
furtherance  of  His  cause. 

President  Lincoln  had  for  more  than  twenty- 
five  years  known  Colonel  Jaquess  as  a  very  suc- 
cessful minister  of  the  gospel,  and  when  in  May, 
1863,  he  first  learned  of  the  proposed  Embassy  of 
Peace,  he  said :  "I  know  Jaquess  well.  He  is  re- 
markably level-headed.  I  never  knew  a  man  more 
so."  He  "is  cool,  deliberate,  God-fearing,  of  ex- 
ceptional sagacity  and  worldly  wisdom." 

Then  follows  the  Gilmore  interviews  and  accounts 
of  the  Missions. 

Seventy-four 


Dr.  Barton  assumes  to  criticize  Dr.  Chapman  for  in- 
cluding Col.  Jaquess'  statement  of  1897,  of  the  con- 
version of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  May,  1847,  "with  full 
confidence  in  the  truth  thereof." 

Dr.  Chapman  does  more  than  this,  on  pages  395 
to  400  he  confirms  Dr.  Jaquess'  statements  with 
arguments  that  have  not  been  answered  by  Dr.  Barton. 
Although  he  had  not  had  the  privilege  of  teaching 
school  in  similar  environment  during  the  80's,  he  knew 
both  the  parties  well  and  familiarly.  He  was  the  "Boy 
Orator  of  the  Wide-Awakes,"  and  made  a  hundred 
campaign  speeches  for  Lincoln  in  1860  at  the  time  of 
his  first  election ;  retained  his  acquaintance  and  friend- 
ship during  the  first  four  year  term,  and  made  many 
stump  speeches  during  the  campaign  of  1864 ;  lived  in 
Washington  throughout  the  war,  and  had  unusual 
facilities  for  knowing  whereof  he  wrote,  and  on  the 
question  of  Lincoln's  conversion  in  the  Methodist 
Parsonage  in  Springfield,  he  says,  among  other  things — 

"Mr.  Lincoln's  subsequent  period  of  doubt  con- 
cerning religious  matters  was  strictly  normal,  and 
does  not  to  any  degree  discredit  the  account  of 
the  declaration  of  his  acceptance  of  Christ  during 
the  interview  in  the  Jaquess'  home.  As  elsewhere 
stated,  people  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  temperament  and 
mental  make-up  usually  come  into  a  large  and  sat- 
isfying faith  by  passing  through  a  period  of  doubt. 
Therefore,  instead  of  discrediting  the  Jaquess' 
story,  Mr.  Lincoln's  later  season  of  doubt  con- 
firms the  account  of  that  event  in  his  life  and  bears 
witness  to  his  surrender  to  Christ,  as  stated  by 
Colonel  Jaquess,  and  to  the  sincerity  of  subsequent 
efforts  to  keep  the  covenant  he  made  at  the  time 
of  that  surrender.  That  surrender  of  his  will  and 
heart  naturally  called  for  the  approval  of  his  rea- 
son and  led  to  investigation  of  Christian  evidences 
which  followed,  and  which  was  so  honest  and  thor- 

Sever.ty-five 


ty 


ough  as  to  seem  to  be  unsettling;  but  which,  in 
fact,  was  the  process  by  which  a  strongly  in- 
tellectual nature  reached  settled  and  satisfactory 
convictions." 

"The  prolonged  silence  of  those  who  knew  of 
this  event  in  i\lr.  Lincoln's  life  is  quite  under- 
standable and  does  not  justify  any  doubt  of  the 
story  itself.  It  was  like  Mr.  Lincoln  to  make  no 
mention  of  this  event  to  any  person;  and  it  was 
just  like  Dr.  Jaquess  to  regard  the  affair  as  con- 
fidential, and  to  leave  the  question  of  publicity  at 
the  time  wholly  with  Mr.  Lincoln.  Some  preachers 
would  have  proclaimed  the  event  from  the  house- 
top, but  Mr.  Lincoln  never  would  have  sought  such 
an  interview  with  a  minister  of  that  caliber  and 
character." 

"There  is  every  reason  for  giving  this  remark- 
able story  unquestionable  credence." 

"It  is  not  at  variance  with  any  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
subsequent  declarations." 

We  could  have  added  nothing  to  these  statements  of 
Dr.  Chapman,  who  knew  both  of  the  parties  in  the 
sixties  and  thereafter  was  an  eminent  minister  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  had  they  been  before  us  when 
writing  the  Open  Letter. 


[Dr.  Chapman  states  that  in  July,  1862,  in  addition 
to  the  carriage  talk  with  two  of  his  Cabinet,  Mr. 
Lincoln  showed  the  original  draft  of  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation  to  the  Vice  President  and  Dr.  Gurley. 
The  printed  extract  from  Dr.  Gurley's  diary,  however, 
relates  only  to  the  final  draft  in  December,  1862.  The 
sentence  in  the  Open  Letter  relating  to  Bishop  Simpson 
should  nevertheless,  be  amended  by  deleting  the  words 
"the  only"  ;  not  otherwise.] 


Seventy-six 


_^ 


